Monthly Archives: August 2005

An Amazon Depatment Too Far

You know, I love me the Amazon, but I’m not entirely sure I’m ready to buy sex toys from them. If for no other reason than I’m not mentally prepared for the Amazon Recommends e-mail that would inevitably arrive: “We’ve found that Amazon customers who have bought the NewPlex Adam & Eve Realistic 8 Inch […]

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Wanting to Be a Writer

Per yesterday’s request for topics, I picked two to discuss today. First: Athena picked “Karma Scarebear” as the name for her bear, and she thanks everyone for their suggestions. She was very excited to see that so many people had made an effort on her behalf (although she didn’t put it in quite those words: […]

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Curious

Both the trade paperback of Old Man’s War and the hardback of The Ghost Brigades have higher Amazon rankings at the moment than Agent to the Stars (all in the 100,000 – 200,000 range). I do hope the people buying both OMW trade and TGB Hardback do realize it’ll be months before they get their […]

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Duuuuuuuuuuh

Can’t think of a single thing to write about here today. Therefore, not going to try, as there is nothing more pathetic than typing simply to hear the clack of your keys. If someone wants to suggest a topic for tomorrow, please be my guest. This also serves as your open thread invitation. Chat amongst […]

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Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies Arrives

In the mail today: Very pleased with the cover. Quite nicely iconic. At an earlier point, I think they were considering Rutger Hauer as Roy in Blade Runner for the cover, which would have been nice, too, but there were rights issues or some such. But I like the Metropolis cover just fine, myself. The […]

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Secrets and Lies

Some of the things about me below may be true. Some may be false. I’m not going to say which is which. 1. When I was born, there was a weird lump that came out with the afterbirth. My mother tells me the doctors told her it was my undeveloped twin. 2. I once bit […]

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Partisan Stupidity

A condensed and not-entirely-fair version of something that’s driving me batty on the comment thread of this entry: Me: The Bush adminstration’s argument that foreign nationals in airports have almost no rights is appalling. Commentor #1: Well, that’s because you’re a left-leaning partisan. Me: No, I would find the argument appalling if it were made […]

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What I Want, MT Plugin Division

Having just manually expurged over 1,000 comment spams from the Whatever that accrued just from about 3pm yesterday (you don’t see them because they’re blocked, but they need to be expunged nonetheless), here’s what I really really really want: A Movable Type plugin that not only moderates comments (like my current plugin, which blocks comments […]

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From the “What the Hell?” File

This lovely story in the New York Times: Foreign citizens who change planes at airports in the United States can legally be seized, detained without charges, deprived of access to a lawyer or the courts, and even denied basic necessities like food, lawyers for the government said in Brooklyn federal court yesterday. Call me crazy, […]

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The Fanfic Community Eats One of Its Own and Spits Out The Bones

Fascinating. A fanfic* writer decided to ask for money to write a couple of fanfic novels (or for money to take time to write novels, which would just happen to include two fanfic novels, wink, wink), and the fanfic community came down on her, hard, and with hobnailed boots. Because they know that playing other […]

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Cake Vs. Pie: The Final Conflict

One of the reasons I enjoy doing the By the Way journal over at AOL Journals is that it allows me to do fundamentally silly audience participation thingies, like this week’s Weekend Assignment, in which I ask people to choose between cake or pie and then defend that choice. It’s not like I couldn’t do […]

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The Reading Stack 8/11/05

Speaking of books, these are the books I was given or bought while I was in Scotland and/or were waiting for me when I returned. From the left: Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction — this book was pressed upon me by a bunch of cheerfully tipsy Scots at the Orbit party at Interaction, whose […]

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Odd Book and Other Book Notes

Krissy was sending out copies of Agent to the Stars to family and friends when she noticed one of the books had an interesting production error: The hardback cover was upside down, relative to the pages inside. I tried to get a picture of it, but it’s difficult to get both the spine of a […]

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Schadenfreude in Kansas

Lord knows it’s wrong of me, but I’m always just a little bit delighted when entire states sabotage the educations of their children for no particularly good reason. As you know I have a child of my own, and by the time she gets to college age competition for the good schools will be fierce. […]

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A Request From Athena

Athena says: “Hello people! Can you think of a name for my stuffy bear? Because I can’t think of a name, or neither can my daddy, named John Scalzi, the one who writes the books. Goodbye people! Hope you have a good time thinking of a name! That’s all I want to say.”

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Interaction Wrapup

Athena is the first kid on her block — and probably in the surrounding six counties as well — to have her very own Beeblebear. Reason enough, I suspect, for having attended Interaction this year. As for Interaction itself, my feelings for it are summed up thusly: Great convention, questionable location. Glasgow grew on me […]

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