Randomness for 1/28

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1) I’m not sure what to call this video clip: GUN FU HUSTLE (Bollywood version)? Whatever you call it, it’s delightfully absurd and inventive.

2) Cherie Priest: high priestess of steampunk.

3) Dear News Media: When reporting on polls, please keep in mind…

4) Louis CK — Being White. God, how I laughed.

5) UK government bans export of fake bomb detectors.

6) Ted Haggard’s wife Gayle stands by her husband/writes book. Ms. Haggard says that her husband confessed to a sexual encounter with another man early in their marriage. He asked for and received her forgiveness, sought counseling, and they moved on. Or that’s what she thought–later she discovered (along with everyone else) that he had been seeing men in secret. However, now he’s asked for and received her forgiveness, sought counseling and they’ve moved on. So that’s totally different from the previous time. (Actually, there is a difference: Ms. Haggard has a book with an Amazon.com sales ranking in three digits. I hope she’s squirreling that money away.)

7) Try to conceal your unbearable surprise, but the CIA agent who claimed in December of 2007 that waterboarding got worthwhile intelligence out of hard-core terrorists, disrupting dozens of attacks? Well, it turns out that he was lying. So much for the “It works. Period.” crowd.

Imagine me sighing just before I ask this

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Have you ever wanted to just blow off a whole day’s worth of crap just so you could do whatever you wanted?

Attention newly published authors!

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For authors with recent first-time pro sales, you might want to check your eligibility for a John W. Campbell Award (not-a-Hugo)[1] by going to this site. Once you’ve confirmed that you’re eligible, you should let the folks running the awards know that by clicking the “Contact Us” link on that same web page.

Good luck!

[1] That’s the full name of the award, yeah?

A quick favor

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There’s a free casual game that my son really enjoys, called Square Meal. It can be played by two people at once on a single keyboard and it’s part puzzle, part monster-fighting. It’s pretty innocuous and the strategy is nice.

However, the company that made it had a couple problems making it work properly (which is why there’s no link) and I said I wasn’t going to play it again. Once through was enough, but kids like to play things several times.

Anyway, there’s a poll on their blog to choose which game they’ll make a sequel to, and Square Meal is only in second place. Would you mind popping over there and voting for it? Voting closes on February 1st, and currently a stabbing game called Double Edged is in the lead.

Thanks.

Child of Fire reviews part 10 (plus health care)

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Today, I have four copies of Child of Fire wrapped up and addressed for mailing. Two are addressed to my senators, one to my congressional representative, and one is addressed to the president. Included with each book is a nearly-identical letter stating, in essence: This is my work. This is what I do. If we had decent health care reform, I could give my day job to someone else who needs it and write books full time. Pass health care reform, please.

I expect none of them will see the book or the letter, but it’s something I needed to do.

And now, the reviews: Continue reading

There’s what you plan, and what you do

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I’d meant to post a quick update on the guy who body-slammed a moving bus Wednesday night (lacerations, broken wrist) but instead I’ve been distracted by http://www.peopleofwalmart.com and it’s endless parade of furry boots with hot pants, hateful T-shirt slogans, epic plumbers’ cracks, pimp outfits, too-short skirts with no underwear, cellulite, high heels with hot pants (on dudes), animal prints, hair cuts that make a mullet look like a ‘do from a 5th Ave Salon, costumes, bellies protruding from tiny shirts, schizophrenics who dress themselves, kids on leashes, clothes made from trash bags, people with monkeys (seriously, why so many monkeys?), cars with random shit glued to them, hair styles meant to look like a toupee, hair styles meant to look like animal parts, hair styles meant to look like obscene gestures, yellow go-go boots with hot pants (on dudes), and complete grownups walking around with fake animal tails.

I… I just don’t understand it. Is this my country? Are these my people?

A quote worth reading

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According to research done by a research department of Harvard Medical School:

Lack of health insurance is associated with as many as 44789 deaths per year in the United States, more than those caused by kidney disease (n=42868).41 The increased risk of death attributable to uninsurance suggests that alternative measures of access to medical care for the uninsured, such as community health centers, do not provide the protection of private health insurance. Despite widespread acknowledgment that enacting universal coverage would be life saving, doing so remains politically thorny.

Source

I know I just linked to this blog

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but it really does have a bunch of interesting posts there. More OKCupid data in convenient graph form, this time about how men and women rate the appearance of the opposite sex.

No kidding, but this is interesting. Be sure to look at the race post and the religion post.

Randomness for 1/21

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1) Yet another reason I’m glad I’ve given up screenwriting. As bad as the credit situation is for writers now, it’s better than it was before the WGA negotiated the right to determine the credit. In the old days, a producer could leave the writers’ names off entirely and give the credit to a girlfriend, if they wanted.

2) A modern-day Jesse James? If Jesse James had 15,000+ Facebook fans, I guess.

3) Upcoming Nicolas Cage projects! aka, some guys with Photoshop put Nic Cage’s face on Davros, Wayne (of Wayne and Garth), and everyone else.

4) I am shocked shocked to discover FBI agents misused the power to conduct warrantless searches! Apparently, the agency has described this lawbreaking as “technical.”

5) Myths of online dating photos: The folks at OKCupid run statistics on their online dating services. What photos get the most interest? What photos turn people away? There are more posts on other topics in the sidebar, including matching people by religion and race.

6) Ta-Nehisi Coates on Jews and basketball.

7) From 10 Strangest Books on Amazon.com: How to Good-bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way? I should mention, this book also has a better sales ranking than mine, but how can I top a quote like “Besides shooting out a big blank from your buttock, you can feel as if your root chakra leaked sweet hot mucus.”

Justice Kennedy: “The appearance of influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy.”

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The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations and unions have the right to donate as much cash as they like to candidates, calling it free speech.

Next week, they’ll grant them the right to marry each other. Sorry, gays. Better move to Spain.