| (no subject) |
[Nov. 4th, 2008|11:28 pm] |
Dear Mr. President-Elect,
Please don't fuck this up.
Love,
Me
P.S. Please fix health care before I die from dehydration because I've been crying since Ohio. |
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| Godsdamn, but I love Neal Stephenson |
[Oct. 11th, 2008|10:09 pm] |
I mean, leaving aside Anathem's timeline and glossary and appendixes of side proofs (with diagrams), there are just lovely little bits, always, like
"I always tend to assume there's an infinite amount of money out there."
"There might as well be, but most of it gets spent on pornography, sugar water, and bombs. There is only so much that can be scraped together for particle accelerators."
or
"I can't predict the future," I said, "but based on what little I know so far, I'm afraid it has to be massive adventure or nothing."
"Great!"
"Probably the kind of adventure that ends in a mass burial."
That quieted her down a little bit. But after a while, she said: "Do you need transportation? Tools? Stuff?"
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "We have a protractor."
"Okay, I'll go home and see if I can scrounge up a ruler and a piece of string."
And that's not even touching the 6-page Socratic dialogue revolving around nerve-gas-farting pink dragons.
I'm taking a while to get through it (I'm just barely over a third of the way through), but I'm enjoying it thoroughly. I've talked to a couple people who were intimidated by it; please don't be. Way more accessible than Quicksilver. |
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| update |
[Oct. 6th, 2008|04:45 pm] |
For those concerned, Mavis the porch spider has, after a brief vacation in the auxiliary spider condos (i.e., my web-covered bushes), has taken to building her webs on the far side of the stair railings. Human-arachnid coexistence continues peacefully.
For now... |
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| porch spider! |
[Sep. 30th, 2008|05:48 pm] |
Yesterday, I had to knock the web away from the steps in order to get down them without being covered in goo.
This morning, I noticed that she (he?) had cleverly re-built on only half of the steps.
( aiee! ) |
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| Make it work! |
[Sep. 19th, 2008|07:42 pm] |
So I watched this week's Project Runway, and then made dinner, and this is what came to me while chopping lettuce:
[SCENE: A workroom, engulfed in flames. All other designers have (rightly) fled, except for KENLEY. TIM GUNN enters, wearing a firefighter's helmet.]
TIM GUNN: Kenley, I understand your aesthetic, but I feel I have to point out to you that if you go on like this you are going to die in a fire, ok? Think of what the judges will say. You need to focus on not dying in a fire and get out of the burning building. You have a lot of work left to do. Make not dying in a fire work for you!
[TIM GUNN leaves. KENLEY rolls her eyes.]
KENLEY: I'm the only designer who gets fire. All these other designers have no understanding of fire, and when their lame fire-avoidance attempts are shown on the runway, I will laugh in their faces. I don't need Tim Gunn to tell me to not die in a fire; I'm not even going to hear that! Ooh, a burning shard of wood, that would look great in my hair! I'm so retro.
[KENLEY dies in a fire.] |
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| August books |
[Sep. 2nd, 2008|06:53 am] |
Three Days to Never, Tim Powers
Dream Hunter, Sherrilyn Kenyon
Acheron, Sherrilyn Kenyon
...Yeah, that looks kind of sad. But consider that I'm most of the way through two other books, including Sophie's World, which needs time to digest along the way. Also, Ash was about as long as a late Harry Potter and was a bit of a tough slog through the flashback bits.
And next month won't be very impressive, either, considering that Anathem comes out in a week. |
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| local store annoyance |
[Aug. 11th, 2008|06:27 pm] |
I've been going to the same local bookstore for over 20 years. (Scary!) Anyway, they're not as big as the chains, but I can usually find what I'm looking for and I get the smugness of supporting a local business. I'm trying to cut down on how many books I buy, limiting myself to new releases and books for travel, so even more, I'm trying to go there first for my book-buying needs.
But they're not making it easy.
A book was released on August 5th. I went to the store after work, at 3, and alas! They had sold out. But more would be in later that week, so I had them put in my name to be emailed when they arrived.
Since then? Nothing.
I went by after work today to look around. Nothing. Nada. Not in the genre section, not in the new releases. I didn't ask at the info desk because, by that time, my request would have been less "Hi, store employee, could you look this up for me please?" and more "GIVE ME MY MYTHOLOGICAL MASH-UP VAMPIRE PR0N, BITCHES."
Maybe I'll just go to Borders instead. |
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| 4x100 free |
[Aug. 10th, 2008|11:11 pm] |
Without the talk beforehand, and the exact same race, I think the reaction would have been more "Woo! But hey, good job other dudes, we almost lost it," rather than what I actually yelled at my TV, which was "Suck it, France!"
It's a good idea to not talk about crushing anyone beforehand, even if you're putting four world-class guys up against six-year-olds wearing water wings. Really, I think they should replace the "Citius, altius, fortius" motto with "Crazy shit happens." Because it always does.
...Yeah, I've done nothing but watch NBC since Friday night. What of it? |
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| August Books |
[Aug. 3rd, 2008|07:44 pm] |
Um...I didn't really keep track this month. I know there was some more Katie Mac in there. But the two important things were
Jhegaala, Steven Brust
Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection, Scott McCloud
both of which are most excellent. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 3rd, 2008|07:39 pm] |
I wish there were a clue fairy.
The clue fairy would flit about the land, delivering clues to people who need to get one. Clue delivery methods would include 2x4 to the back of the head, or perhaps a kick to the groin.
In my mind, the clue fairy is played by Jason Statham. |
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| pies pies pies |
[Jul. 4th, 2008|04:43 pm] |
So I did an assload of baking today. This was a practice run for some baking that I'll be doing next month, when Snapdragons and I and some other folk go on a picnic before seeing a play. In pondering what I could contribute to the picnic (most of which I am leaving in her more-than-capable hands), she related an old Martha Stewart idea: to make little pocket pies using 6-inch rounds and wee dabs of pie filling. Brilliant!
Because I wanted to be sure that the proportions and cooking times worked out, I did a dry run today. And in honor of Snapdragons, I will go on at length regarding the entire process...after the cut.
( Seriously, don't click here unless you want to read a lot about pie. ) |
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| June books |
[Jul. 1st, 2008|06:15 pm] |
Fire Me Up, Katie MacAlister
Zombies Calling, Faith Erin Hicks
Light My Fire, Katie MacAlister
The Sharing Knife: Beguilement, Lois McMaster Bujold
The Sharing Knife: Legacy, Lois McMaster Bujold
Cast in Shadow, Michelle Sagara
*Basara vols. 1-7, Yumi Tamura
Heart of the Sea, Nora Roberts
Ghost of a Chance, Katie MacAlister |
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| hi |
[Jun. 14th, 2008|07:25 pm] |
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I'm home. |
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| Hermes has it in for me. |
[Jun. 6th, 2008|08:25 pm] |
So, last year, right before the trip to Israel, Bernadette, my laptop, died.
And now, as I'm getting ready for a week in SLC? Djehuty, the replacement desktop, has a hard drive that's going kaput.
Now I get to pack and yell at customer service tonight. Yay! |
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| can't sleep. clown'll eat me. |
[Jun. 3rd, 2008|01:49 am] |
So after developing a nasty tension headache in the afternoon, which was not helped by working out, I medicated with some painkillers, burritos, ben & jerry's Dublin Mudslide, and the director's commentary on What's Up, Doc?
I thought it had almost worked, but I woke up after an hour of sleep flavored by a nasty, scary, people are sneaking around my house and coming to kill me nightmare. (And yes, the title is appropriate. The lurking figure was a cross between those in the trailer for The Strangers and Heath Ledger's Joker. Gah.) I lay around paralyzed for a bit, then managed to turn on the light and read...I may have exhausted myself enough to sleep again, but part of me really doesn't want to turn out the lights to find out. |
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| May books |
[Jun. 1st, 2008|10:00 am] |
Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, Stephanie Barron
John Dies at the End, David Wong
Jane and His Lordship's Legacy, Stephanie Barron
Jane and the Barque of Frailty, Stephanie Barron
You Slay Me, Katie MacAlister |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 26th, 2008|09:34 am] |
I've been hovering around it lately, but this is the first week in my Official Weekly Weigh-In that I've hit it: I've lost 25 lbs since last summer--and more than that total, but I'm not exactly sure what my upper limit was.
Yeah, I probably could have lost more if I stuck strictly to the weight watchers, but considering that I've continued to lose a bit off of it, I'd rather keep the money. At least I know it works for me, so that if I need a kick in the pants at some point, I can go back.
I just realized, the weight listed on my driver's license is now accurate again. Hee. |
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| Word count |
[May. 9th, 2008|07:55 pm] |
The short story is currently at 9,456 words.
Tonight at the cafe, I filled four large notebook pages, front and back.
When I type all that up, what will the word count be?
Let's find out!
ETA: 1,286. Actually, I would have written a bit more than that, as part of what I was doing was hacking up a previously-written scene, some parts of which got tossed. So, call it maybe 1,400 for the evening. Not too shabby.
ETA2: These are my two favorite sentences from tonight's work: "Although she and Kerry were identical twins, Elsa had always thought Kerry was far prettier. If nothing else, while Elsa had gotten Kerry’s share of magic, it seemed that Kerry had received Elsa’s share of bosom." and "And they talked, talked about everything and nothing, one of those endless spools of effortless words passed back and forth, so vital, so important at the time, and so impossible to reconstruct afterwards." |
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| Stabbed by wayward curly quotes |
[May. 3rd, 2008|09:00 pm] |
So I'm reading John Dies at the End, which Sam sent to me in dead tree form. It's quite engaging and amusing ("the heavy monkey of sleep rested its warm, hairy ass on my eyelids") and I will probably never sleep again, what with the exploding people and various other entertainments, but...
Look, I recognize that it was originally published online. And that it was put into dead tree format by a small press. But. You would think that somewhere along the way, someone would have checked to make sure that all of the quotation marks were pointing the right way. Particularly as it often seems to go wrong around ellipses. It's not hard, people. I promise.
I would also mention the rules about equal spacing around ellipses and balancing the pages, but...baby steps. The quotes pointing the wrong way would be distracting to non-editorial types, I think, where they might not (consciously) notice the other stuff.
And just to end on a positive note, this bit of lyric from the book made me snort with laughter:
"There's a wolf behind you
No wait, it's just a dog
Oh, shit! Badger! Baaaadgeeeerrr!"
...maybe it's better in context. |
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