Monthly Archives: June 2004

Pamie’s Book Drive 2004 — Give, Damn You!

I mentioned this over at By The Way, but I realize that some of you who read the Whatever don’t go to By The Way for some unfathomable reason, so: Pamie had fine success last year convincing her readers to participate in her book drive for the Oakland public libraries — they ended up contributing […]

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Dust Jacket

The dust jacket to Old Man’s War, which the fine folks at Tor sent along to me over the weekend. I wrote in detail about it over at By The Way, so I won’t replicate efforts here, but I will say it’s got some nice blurbs on it by Cory Doctorow, Ken MacLeod and Robert […]

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Goin’ Photo Through the Fifth

I’ve got a heap of writing to do on the Book of the Dumb 2 and some preliminary research to get underway for the Science Fiction Film books, so through July 5th, I’ll be switching formats here: Instead of my usual meandering blatherations (which take time to write), each week day I’ll post a picture […]

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A Little Libel

Todd Pierce, the Clemson professor I wrote about last month (here and here) who provided spectacularly bad advice to writers, has stuck his foot in it again, and in an interesting fashion. As a preface, know that Tor editor Teresa Nielsen Hayden savaged Pierce’s “advice” here, particularly his advice to new writers to lie about […]

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Double Whammy

As I left on vacation in May I hinted that when I got back I’d have some exciting news, and then I left you all hanging for two and a half weeks. Well, I had my reasons for that, but as it turns out a happy coincidence will give that wait an even bigger payoff. […]

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Demon Seed GMail Winners

Here are the winners I’ve selected for gmail accounts. For context, once again, the picture of poor, possessed Athena: Winner #1: Lee Newberry Ever wake up with that not-so-fresh feeling? Hundreds(1) of decent, hardworking Americans are afflicted with the minions of Beelzebub each year. The only source of professional strength exorcisms is from poorly-credentialed traveling […]

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Lollapalooza Is Dead and I Don’t Feel Too Good Myself

Seems like this year’s Lollapalooza done got itself canceled, thanks to low ticket sales, or, as the site’s self-pitying comment on the matter states it: Even with what has been touted as the best line-up since its inception in 1991, with such eclectic and respected artists as Morrissey, Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, and The Flaming […]

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JournalCon 2004

I’ve been asked to sit on a panel at JournalCon 2004 — naturally enough, on writing journals and also writing professionally — and I said yes, so all y’all who are going to JournalCon this year will see me there, and all y’all who don’t have anything to do on August 20-22, well, now you […]

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More Than You Ever Wanted to See

In lieu of doing the work I’m supposed to be doing, I’ve been fiddling with my camera and QuickTime Pro. Here’s the result: A tour of my office. It’s a 1.78 MB file, trimmed down from 29.1 MB because, honestly, who in their right mind would download 30 megs of me blathering on about the […]

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They’re Everywhere!

An interesting article, care of the Boston Globe: A list of the different occupations listed on marriage certificates of gays and lesbians in Massachusetts the first week same-sex marriages were legal, from acceptance tester (an oddly appropriate job title, that) through youth worker (no zoologists, apparently). It may possibly be instructive to anyone who still […]

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Fashionably Liberal or Not

In the comments for Conservative = Moral Relativist? Ed writes: You run a great site, your columns make me laugh, and I plan on buying Old Man’s War as soon as it is available in stores. However, I have an observation to make in regard to your political writings. I have been following your columns […]

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Just to Clear This One Up

Turns out when the 9/11 Commission said there was no credible connection between Saddam and al Qaeda, they meant it in the larger “look, people, it didn’t happen, ever” sense: Bush aides have sought to blunt the Democratic offensive not by challenging the commission’s findings but by arguing that Kerry and the media have mischaracterized […]

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Conservative = Moral Relativist?

Shorter Jonah Goldberg: Yes, yes, it’s not nice for Americans to torture people, but it’s not like Osama bin Laden and all those other nasty people are signatories to the Geneva Conventions, and they don’t play by its rules, so screw ’em. This is yet even more proof that if you really want to see […]

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Nine

We’re married nine years today. Whee! No, it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. On the other hand, I don’t want to give the impression that I would have wanted to be married less than every one of those days. You know. Being married is a good thing.

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I Refuse to Believe 9 Out of 10 Republicans Are Complete Tools

“Polls show that nine in 10 Republicans approve of [Bush’s] job performance — a level of partisan loyalty unmatched by any president.” — Howard Fineman, “Best advice for Kerry: Be invisible,” 6/16/04 There’s no polite way to ask this: Are 90% of all Republicans really dumber than a dog drinking antifreeze? How can anyone with […]

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Your GMail Haiku Winners

Of course I should say, in the grand tradition of spelling bees everywhere, that everyone who played is a winner. But it’s a contemptible lie when they say it at the spelling bee, and it’d be no less a contemptible lie now. You all didn’t win; just four of you did. But you can be […]

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