1) The fully compiled results of Jim Hines’s First Novel Survey.
2) Marriage vs. PhD. via @ccfinlay.
3) I’m sure this guy can get a divorce at the same court appearance when his wife gets her conviction.
4) President Obama’s Facebook page, HCR edition. “I smell Democrat.”
5) Literary troll is trollish.
6) What can surprise Werner Herzog? “It’s not a serious wound.”
7) The future of text?. They’d like you to think so.
1) My son’s latest Lego stop-motion movie. Actually, it’s part one of a longer story, and yeah, I provide voiceover work. (But just a little).
3) Did you know that Amazon.com sells cans of uranium ore? Here’s one of the customer reviews: “I purchased this product 4.47 Billion Years ago and when I opened it today, it was half empty.”
4) Teal and Orange – Hollywood, Please Stop the Madness!
5) Rob Liefeld’s Dreams Are One Step Closer To Reality “You know, I really like shooting this machine gun, but I really wish I could be shooting another gun at the same time,”
6) “Die Hard in a tattoo” Someone’s a little crazy for that movie.
7) Dan Savage talks to the young woman at the center of the “Lesbians made us cancel the prom!” scandal. Also, you can find ways to help at the end of the article.
Stick with it to at least the midpoint for a nice twist. (Facebook people, this is an embedded video; you can watch it at the blog, if you want.)
Both, of course, having to do with Legos
This is my 666th post on my WordPress blog. Continue reading… if you dare!
1) Would you recognize Der Fuehrer?
2) Money as motivation: “It’s certainly true that motivated workers need to feel that they are being paid fairly and adequately. Pink’s thesis, however, is that beyond that threshold, performance bonuses may actually be counterproductive, particularly when the work requires initiative, judgment and creativity.” The article directly addresses Wall St bonuses, but it covers a lot of other interesting ground, too. I have the referenced book on hold for my wife, but maybe I should read it, too.
3) How to make an origami swan.
4) Nathan Bransford’s Choose Your Own E-Book Adventure.
5) A pseudonymous TV writer/producer on Florida’s new morality restrictions on filmmaking in the state. This link will expire within the next two weeks. Update: Link dead.
6) Korean man marries pillow. In all my life, I never thought I would be in a position to type a sentence like that, but this is the internet age, and we must share all manner of human oddity.
7) New book reveals evidence that infamous French hallucination epidemic was actually CIA LSD experiment. In school I did a report on MKUltra, but I never heard of this incident before (not surprising, since so many of the MKUltra files were destroyed.
A neighborhood library branch (not mind) is having a writers event tonight. It’s some sort of reading and talk, along with an open mike. I was seriously tempted to go, just to see what it was like. If it was fun and well-attended, I would have introduced myself to the library staff and offered myself for future events.
Then I decided to run the authors’ names through a search engine. They’re all poets.
Just typing that make me shudder a bit. I don’t know if anyone out there has ever heard a poet reading their work on, say, NPR, but they always have the same unnatural, deadening cadence. Gah! Instead, I will go home to my family, share dinner with them, and maybe watch the last of the NOVA dvds we picked up at the library (“The Last Extinction!”). That will be pleasant.
You know what else is pleasant? Woolgathering for a new book. Everything is still made of potential and none of the characters have turned up dead in a burning orphanage. Yet.
1) As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve finished my agent’s revisions to Man Bites World. I have, in my backpack, a printed copy of the latest version. My agent prefers to read on paper, so I’ll be (priority) mailing a copy to her over lunch.
2) With luck, she’ll declare it ready to submit sometime next week. Without luck, she’ll point out a glaring problem I failed to address sufficiently or introduced in this draft, and there will be more changes make. Hopefully, I’ll have luck.
3) Have I mentioned this book was due on September 1st?
4) I won’t be attending Norwescon after all. My application materials were never received (which is probably my fault, somehow), and although they generously offered to squeeze me into a panel or two I decided not to go at all. I’ve spent the last several weekends working all day long on MBW, which means it’s way past time to stop skimping on Family Day. My wife and son have been neglected for too long. I’m thinking we should go to the Air and Space Museum–I moved to Seattle in 1989 and I’ve still never been. My first sf convention will have to be some other event.
5) 1989? Jesus, I’ve been here a long time.
6) I voted for SFWA leadership, but I’ve thrown away my Nebula ballot. Of everything nominated, movies included, Boneshaker is the only thing I’ve read or seen. No, I haven’t seen the rebooted STAR TREK or AVATAR or DISTRICT 9 or whatever. The short fiction is largely online, but I don’t like reading fiction on my computer screen.
What’s more, it felt like an obligation that I just don’t care about. I find myself doing these things once in a while–a couple weeks ago I made a stab at spreading word that I’m eligible for a particular award, but I felt stupid during and after, and I’m not doing it anymore. I’m not condemning people who self-pimp for awards–that’s their choice and I don’t have a problem with it. I don’t read those posts or click those links, but whatever.
7) Having finished this latest version of book three, I rewarded myself by getting a full eight hours of sleep last night. Crazy, I know! Tomorrow I’ll be getting up at my usual Unbearable O’clock to work on the goof for Project Number Next. I have no contract for this one and no clue if it’s a good idea or not (only that it intrigues me and would be refreshingly different than the Twenty Palaces books).
You know what feels best about this, though? No one knows a thing about this project but me.
I did my first voice-over job today. The writer/director trusted me quite a bit when he gave me this role, and I hope I did a good job.
My son made his first Lego stop-motion animation all by himself. He even did the editing; I’m planning to ask him for tips on using iMovie later. Comments on YouTube are disabled because he’s eight, but any kind words would be welcome here.
1) Admiral Akbar leading the votes to become new sports mascot at Ole Miss. Shockingly, this particular “rebel” has students threatening to transfer if he shows up at games. Because that’s what important about college: the sports mascot.
2) Major retailers caught selling used lingerie. Oh, Victoria’s Secret, you’re so sexy!
3) Another way to lower health care costs. Quote: “Only about half of patients who are prescribed a medication for a chronic condition are still taking the drug regularly after a year, says Daniel Touchette, assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.”
4) Comic artist accused of copying another artist, with added moral complications. Lightbox ftl.
5) All 137 years of Popular Science Magazine in a searchable online format.
6) Quote of the day: “The problem with hockey is that everyone has a stick.” From http://www.postcardsfromyomomma.com/
7) Movies condensed into six-panel comics. Spoilers for various and sundry.
1) I wish someone could explain to me the causes of the great Balloons Monkey War. Added later: Ah! It was unprovoked Monkey aggression.
2) Five links about selling books.
3) The Venn Diagram of Monsters.
4) Now that Harriet the Spy is being updated as Harriet the blogger, Jezebel.com offers other classics of children’s lit that could be updated for modern times.
5) What Science TV is like. via nihilistic_kid
6) Math A Capella (the internet triples its total nerdiness with one video)
7) If Pitagora Suichi made a music video. Yeah, this one is seriously cool, possibly the coolest thing I’ve linked to in a long time. Don’t skip it.