Sun!

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It’s almost seven am, I’m freshly breakfasted, the hummingbirds are floating outside my window, the stellar jays are squawking, and the sun is shining.

I’m going for a walk.

But it’s not going to be a “fun” walk; it’s going to be a vigorous exercise/plot walk. A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark has been a bit difficult lately and I’m not sure where it should go next. This walk will be a chance to plot a course forward. Which I need.

Also, did I mention that the sun is shining?

Hopefully, I won’t see you guys around the interwebs for a few hours.

Randomness for 5/18

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1) Better book titles, Strunk and White ed.

2) Brilliant street fliers.

3) Why SyFy cancelled SGU, in numbers.

4) Angry comic book fans are good for sales, apparently.

5) U.S. cities where women (childless, between 22-30 years old) earn more than men.

6) Mysterious “Surfing Madonna” mosaic appears in Encinitas, but city mayor calls it “graffiti”.

7) My son calls this the guy-cycle. Video.

This week’s hypothetical

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As a followup to last week’s hypothetical, it is 25 years since the discovery that could grant superpowers to ten year olds at a high price. The world has changed, mostly for the better but not entirely. There have been problems with rich teenagers who thought their powers put them above the law: some went to jail, some did serious harm, some killed unpowered people.

But most didn’t. They’re celebrities now, and they use their powers in non-violent ways to improve the world–generate power, end droughts, that sort of thing. They are also very powerful people, culturally and politically, and even more rich than their parents.

You are an average person in this world, one of billions living their lives peacefully, doing what you do. You also have a ten year old who will turn eleven at the end of next week and pass beyond the age that he can become empowered. Like every kid, he wants superpowers, and asks you to buy a lottery ticket in the hopes that he can get one. You do buy one, and it comes up a winner.

With your new-found wealth, you could live he easy life for the rest of your life and pass on a comfy inheritance, or you could spend the whole thing in one go to give your kid powers. He’s excited and already starting to have power fantasies. You believe he’s a good kid (you’ve raised him well) but most kids are a handful in their teenage years.

Would you buy superpowers for him? If so, what would they be?

I suck at blogging

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To make up for being kinda dull for the last couple of days, here’s a picture of a giant tree house made of candy (behind the cut).
Continue reading

Readercon

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I know I’ve said I was going to Readercon, but Stuff I Can’t Talk About has come up, and I’m backing out. Maybe I’ll get to go some other year.

Hello, startling numbers of new visitors

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My Rapture prank post is bringing in a bunch of new people, so I’m going to take a moment to point out that I’m a novelist with two books out (so far). You can find out more about them under the “All About Me” section in the upper right part of this page, or you can go directly to the first chapter of my first book.

Make yourself at home and do come back again.

My “Judgement Day” Plan for 5/21

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Okay you guys, here’s the plan. There are all sorts of people out there convinced that the Rapture will occur on May 21st, because that’s supposed to be Judgement Day. Weirdly, Judgement “Day” supposedly lasts for, like, five months, but never mind that. I have an idea.

Instead of letting yet another “Absolutely true this is the honest deal for reals” pseudo-Apocalypse pass with business as usual–except for the eye-rolling–we should have fun.

That’s why, at about noon PST on 5/21, I plan to be on Twitter. These are the tweets I’ll make:

  • My wife says she hears someone playing trumpets, but I can’t hear a thing. All that exercise is rotting her brain.
  • HOLY SHIT, SHE JUST VANISHED IN FRONT OF ME!
  • WHAT’S GOING ON??? MY WIFE JUST DISAPPEARED LIKE OBI WAN KENOBI! HER EMPTY CLOTHES COLLAPSED ON THE FLOOR!
  • WHERE’S MY SON!
  • My son has vanished, too! WHERE’S MY SON! WHAT’S GOING ON!! I gotta figure this out!

With the perfect delay between tweets, it’ll seem like the Rapture is really happening.

You should do this, too! If enough people on Twitter and LiveJournal and Facebook post that their loved ones have suddenly vanished (or their Muslim co-worker or Jewish Grandma) it will seem like the Rapture really is happening, and the people wearing those “Judgement Day” T-shirts weren’t chosen to go.

Maybe you can Instagram a set of clothes on the floor of your office, or an empty car up on a lawn.

So! May 21st, noon PST! Remember.

You guys, OMG

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I just watched a rough cut of the Twenty Palaces trailer (no, I will not share) and it looks fantastic!

There are no effects yet, and the cut is still rough, right? Obviously. But it looks fantastic.

Sooooo excited!

Added later: I watched it at home with the sound, and it’s 50x more awesome. You guys, seriously.

Randomness for 5/12

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1) Sci-fi IKEA manuals.

2) The first five Harry Potter novels abbreviated in comic form.

3) Since when did diligence become a psychiatric disorder?

4) Japanese TV show pranks a man with a haunted mirror. Video. I’m a bad person for laughing as hard as I did, especially after things got crazy. Be sure to watch the whole thing.

5) TV writer Doris Egan on The Moment They Figure It Out: open and closed plot structures, realization, and turning points, with a little Doctor Who thrown in for good measure.

6) “I will tell you a secret to make you stand out.”

7) “Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says” Oh god, for once, read the comments on this “article.” Let’s be CLEAR this is not a VADER victory but a victory of our boys in white, not to mention the leadership of Lord Tyrannus the Count Dooku who started the manhunt in the first place. LOL via Jay Lake

Time to write a letter.

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“If the Justice Department fails to give the American people a chance to judge this case — if Goldman skates without so much as a trial — it will confirm once and for all the embarrassing truth: that the law in America is subjective, and crime is defined not by what you did, but by who you are.”

Matt Taibbi, writing about the crimes Goldman Sachs committed during the pre-recession bubble and how much evidence the government already has against them.

Will our government prosecute? God, I hope so. I’m going to write some letters to my political reps once I finish today’s pages.