people

Randomness for 10/28

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1) Michael A. Stackpole on Cory Doctorow’s book promo experiment. via Jay Lake

2) The Game of White! MightyGodKing on board games.

3) Coyotes attack, kill adult human in Nova Scotia. What a horror. via James Nicoll.

4) “I just get naked. It’s what I do.” This ought to make Sarah Palin’s book release extra-special. Best part: His handler is named “Tank Jones.” lol

5) People trust experts who seem tentative in their conclusions, and amateurs who express certitude.

6) New form of bioenergy powering Swedish heating plant: Dead rabbits.

Thanks, Hollywood.

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How you can tell a cliche has thoroughly permeated the culture:

My son and his buddy, both seven years old, were playing Lego Batman–in fact they were playing a scene in “Arkham Asylum” where supervillains and goons stream in endlessly. After 10 minutes of pitch battle, Buddy said: “Man, everybody is running around fighting and shooting each other! It’s like being in a bar!“

Randomness for 10/26

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LiveJournal isn’t feeding feeds, so this will be a short one:

1) A reader likes Child of Fire.

2) I could totally do all this stuff, too. I just don’t want to.

3) Robin Hobb-quoting amnesiac identified.

4) How to get people to take the stairs. I love this one. via madrobins

Who is Jamie Nash?

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Well, for starters, he’s a guy I know online. Not remarkable, you say? How about this, then:

He’s one of the writers for this comic book, on stands now:

Blackbeard

I picked up the first issue this week, and it’s terrific.

And he’s the writer for I WAS A SEVENTH GRADE DRAGONSLAYER, upcoming for 2010. Here’s the trailer:

He also just put out a raucous short film spoof of the movie PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (warning: NSFW due to language, but damn it’s funny.):

AND! He also writes and directs a webseries spoofing the reality TV Ghost Hunters-style supernatural investigations shows, right at ParaAbnormal.tv. Here’s part one of the first “case” in which the investigators look into a haunted sex tape.

“Hi, I’m Tony. I’m an internet-certified exorcist.” lol

That’s who Jamie Nash is. He’s the dude who makes me feel like a slacker.

Philip.

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via mightygodking

Randomness for 10/20

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1) Dead man lies on balcony for days in plain view of neighbors… who didn’t call the police because they thought he was a Halloween decoration.

2) The Genreville book club for October runs this week. The book is Seanan McGuire’s Rosemary & Rue, which I haven’t read because it just came out. Apparently, it’s selling quite well, though, so if you read it and want to participate, head over now.

Anyway, this is interesting to me not just because she sat next to me at my panel at Comic-Con. The book club actually starts off with a note from Rose Fox asking the author to refrain from commenting because it stifles the conversation.

And that was the basis of my original desire to make no mention of reviews in my blog. Maybe I should do a review link-farm post, and back date it so it doesn’t turn up on friends lists or something. Yet another thing to add to the to-do list.

3) “I sold my family downriver for a manuscript.” via Bookslut

4) Do Americans want bipartisan support of health care reform? Sure. Do they want bipartisanship at the expense of the public option? No, they absolutely do not. A majority of Americans want the public option, whether it garners any Republican support or not. via Ezra Klein.

5) Man, it’s going to be tough for this dude to find a new job in this economy.

6) What happens when a man loses job and the healthcare that goes with it? What if the man’s wife and the mother of his three children has cancer and needs chemotherapy they can’t afford? He joins the Army.

The Post Sci-Fi Era

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Welcome to it! Apparently, “sci-fi” has become the mainstream of cultural expression, mostly by being dumbed-down crap. Not that it has to be that way, mind you!

via bookslut

Jim Hines Explains It All

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How to REALLY help an author out.

Randomness for 10/4

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1) Origami as done by a master. I can’t wait to show this to my son.

2) An alternate history that I’m glad is alternate: The speech William Saffire wrote for Richard Nixon in the event that the first men on the moon could not return safely.

3) Steve Harvey: Relationship guru. All I need to know is that the book his advice is taken from is titled: Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. Pass.

4) The gender wage gap, state by state. I’m sorry to see Washington state looking so pale.

5) Win free manga!

Question re: book signings

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Last night at dinner, my wife and I went back and forth over a question of protocol for tomorrow’s book signing, and I promised I’d try to settle the matter by asking you, O Internet, for your opinion.

After tomorrow’s book signing, I have a couple of people who want to have a nice lunch. Friends I only know online or haven’t seen in years–that sort of thing. After lunch, my wonderful wife wants to be prepared to invite folks back to our apartment for a little socializing.

Me, I expect to have run out of extrovert by then. Flip side to that is that I expect the signing and lunch to interfere with socializing, and I’d like to spend a little time with these people.

As for my wife, she has been having trouble sleeping lately, and I do *not* want her to spend today cleaning up our small, dark, cluttered apartment in anticipation of socializing tomorrow. She’s exhausted enough as it is, and I can’t do a damn thing to help her from my chair here at the ole day job. Did I mention that our living room has been taken over by fort-building?

On the flip side for her: She’s an extrovert and doesn’t socialize as much as she needs to. Having people over might actually energize her, even while it enervates me.

What do you think, O Internet? “Party at my house!” after the signing and lunch, or is that Simply Not Done.

Update: Thanks everyone. I’m convinced. We’ll be out of the apartment for our socializing.