1) Hoarding TV shows cured my hoarding.
2) Old comic book Hostess and Twinkie ads repurposed for the KFC Double Down.
3) An old Randomness entry revisited: House made of Lego blocks destroyed.
4) Propaganda posters for 80’s arcade games.
5) 3D without the glasses. Not for folks who are drunk, hungover, or slightly queasy.
Andrew Wheeler went through Publishers Weekly’s list of best-selling books from 2009 and took out everything that wasn’t sf/f. The list of most popular sf/f books is here.
I don’t have a lot to say about the content of the books. You have to go pretty far down the list before you find science fiction. Fantasy and Horror dominate.
Another thing I notice at first glance is that there aren’t that many writers listed once on the list. Most of the slots are books from authors with at least one (usually more) other slot on the list. In Donald Maas’s The Career Novelist (there’s a free pdf of the book at the end of that link, btw) the agent took a look at which of his writers were earning six figures every year, and what they had in common.
He said the authors earning those big bucks weren’t getting it in advances. Most of it was coming from backlist sales, and they had to write about ten books before they reached that point. Interesting stuff.
And no, my book is not on the list. Yeah, I checked.
1) Which is nerdier: Dr. Who or the X-Men? From the Extremely Bad Advice column.
2) Barack Obama looking at awesome things. via @Scalzi
3) Tricks for better Google searches.
5) How MMORPG designers keep you playing, even when you’re not having fun. More about this later, I think. via Kate Nepvue
6) An instance of Nerd Rage examined. –although this isn’t relegated to nerds (“geeks” whatever you want to call them). The Kindlegarteners dropping one-star reviews on Amazon.com because they can’t buy a Kindle edition in Australia, or because they think the price point is too high are no different than these bitterly angry LOTR fans.
7) 11 Tips for bookselling success at brick-and-mortar stores.
1) The NYTimes (attempts to) compare the environmental impact of paper and electronic books.
2) Scrabble to allow proper nouns. Is this worse than the Designated Hitter rule? Save us Will Shorts!
3) How to write a stupid book review. “Once upon a time in a world far, far away, publishing was run by editors.” Also, it’s amazing how many people heap shit on urban fantasy because it’s perceived to be about women. I say this as an author who is uncomfortable when people praise my work as if it’s an antidote to UF about women and their sex lives.
4) Beautiful photos of the circus, circa 1910.
5) Picturesque old postcards with added alien invasion.
6) Spawn, GI Joe, Optimus Prime, and other figures done in Lego.
1) The Science of Newton’s Cradle. That’s NEWTON’S CRADLE the hard sf independent movie, not the actual toy.
2) How ten movies would be different if they came from Nicholas Sparks novels. via alg.
3) Opening a hotel room door by going under. Be sure to watch the video.
4) Leonardo DiCaprio as Travis McGee? I have to admit that I’m dubious, but maybe he can pull it off. The real question is why Hollywood continues to make crime/detective movies. Are the budgets low enough to balance low box office? Is it the DVD sales?
5) A Suvudu death match between a GRRM character from A Song of Ice and Fire and a Patrick Rothfuss character inspires this hilarious comment.
6) A Victorian-era sex scholar, and her research.
7) Students recreate “Starry Night” on large scale… in cereal. I wish I was this interesting.
My son found it and I have to share it with you. It’s a bit long (16 minutes) but there isn’t a boring moment. In fact, it’s a beautiful piece of animated storytelling, and the sound design is simply amazing.
1) Quentin Tarantino is playing a smurf? Um, okay, I gues.
2) Protecting IP the stand-up comic way. One of my friends was (unfairly) accused of joke-stealing. It was painful to see him (voluntarily) ditch a ten-minute routine about sitting at the big table over Thanksgiving because someone else had a single joke about it. This probably deserves its own post, but I’m not the one to write it.
3) I liked Speed Racer, too. However, I don’t have to call it an “art film” to justify that. It was definitely inventive and non-realistic, and it had a powerful emotional affect on me. I’ve been meaning to rewatch the ending to examine that a little more.
4) Insectophobes, do not click! That sucker is two and a half feet long. If you drown in deep waters and your corpse sinks to the bottom, that thing will be one of the creatures feasting on you.
5) Batman goes to jail for stalking L&O actress. Fate of his two daughters, Harleyquinn and Batgirl, undecided. (More seriously, if you’re a famous person, you get stalkers–freaky, creepy ones–and the only way they hit the news is if they’re colorful in some way or it’s a slow news day.)
6) Beautiful new library in Battery Park.
7) Big house vs short commute time: Which will make us happier? It’s interesting how this just assumes people will be in cars. I wonder what variables public transit adds in? Personally, I like my bus time; it’s pretty much the only dedicated reading time I have left.
1) This makes a school bus trip seem like a delight. Actually, I’d probably homeschool.
2) Guys who pay women to play video games with them.
4) And, as an antidote to those of you who were annoyed by the critique of police procedure in CASTLE: A show that get’s the procedure right. FYI, I don’t post these links to harsh peoples’ buzz on their favorite shows; there’s a lot to learn here for writers and readers.
In my continuing attempts to be useful to people, here are three things I’m glad I know.
1) If you feel the urge to sneeze but need to hold it back (because, say, your beloved spouse is sleeping right there in the room with you), tickle the roof of your mouth with your tongue. It won’t prevent every sneeze, and sometimes it will only delay it, but it works.
2) If you are sick of having the whole roll of aluminum foil pop out of the box when you pull on it, check the sides of the box. There should be a bit of perforated cardboard there. Just punch it in so it sticks into the center of the roll and the problem is solved.
3) This I got from an emergency room doc (who posted it online–I didn’t go to the hospital for it): if you have persistent hiccups, here are three steps to stopping them. First, take a tsp of sugar. That should stop 95% of hiccups. If it doesn’t work, try remedy two: half-tsp of salt. That covers up to 98%. If neither of those work, go with one tsp of vinegar. That should polish off the last two percent.
I should mention that I’ve never had that three-step remedy fail. The only iffy part is getting my son to take it.
2) “… Bloggers aren’t real writers…”
3) The Strange Sad Death of Alan MacDonald.
4) How to take surreptitious photos on the planet Belvedere.
5) The lonely life of a super-hero.
6) Casting call for Pirates of the Caribbean 4: No fake boobs.
