Monthly Archives: May 2006
The Fermi Paradox
Posted on May 31, 2006 66 Comments
SFCrowsnest has a review up on Old Man’s War which is mostly positive, and that’s good. Yay! It also notes that the book “wantonly ignores the Fermi Paradox and offers no explanation as to why his galaxy is so densely populated with myriad alien species.” For those of you not in the know, the Fermi […]
Comments
Posted on May 31, 2006 18 Comments
I’m fiddling with a comment plug-in. There may be comment disruption while I fiddle. If your comment disappears, don’t panic — however you might want to hold off on making important comments until I’m done fiddling. However, if you want to attempt to leave comments in this comment thread, that might be helpful. Any comment […]
Irony
Posted on May 31, 2006 22 Comments
The message in the most recent bit of spam comments attempted at the site: “You have a great site, but I’m sorry you have a lot of spam :-( “. That’s not the irony. The irony is that it was all caught by my spam trap and never showed up on the site at all. […]
Wiscon 30/06
Posted on May 30, 2006 15 Comments
First of all, a moment of silence for my cell phone, which apparently slipped the surly bonds of earth sometime on Saturday and hasn’t been seen since. I suspect it has been bodily translated into heaven, where it will serve to take voice mail and blurry photos for the angels. If I had actually paid […]
The Perfect Man
Posted on May 30, 2006 10 Comments
No, it’s not me (the pictures of me faux-stripping at Wiscon prove that readily enough). No, it’s a new short story by my friend Lauren McLaughlin, which was published in Salon today. Lauren read a portion of it yesterday at Wiscon, and it was a whole lot of fun, so I recommend you check it […]
Something to Hold You
Posted on May 30, 2006 8 Comments
Here’s the rat bastard thunderstorm supercell that caused us and what felt like a half-million other people at O’Hare Airport so much damn trouble getting home last night. As I think I mentioned earlier, we ended up renting a car to get home; the whole report on the “getting home” thing is here. I’ll be […]
Brain-Dead
Posted on May 30, 2006 6 Comments
Ended up driving home from Wiscon, which is quite a feat because we flew in. I’ll have more details about that and Wiscon in general later. Probably much later, because as you might see from the timestamp, it’s quite late. If you’ve sent me an e-mail any time since last Thursday, it’s likely you’ve not […]
Ping
Posted on May 28, 2006 2 Comments
I’m still alive, I’m just busy having fun at Wiscon. I’ll be back late Monday or possibly early Tuesday.
OMW as VG?
Posted on May 26, 2006 14 Comments
Here’s an interesting commentary/interview with me at the video game site Gaming Target, in which the author chats about how Old Man’s War would make a great video game (I agree), and then interviews me about the influence of video games on OMW (there’s a little). It’s an interesting commentary/interview, made extra cool because the […]
Oh, Dear
Posted on May 26, 2006 55 Comments
They didn’t think I would post this picture. Clearly, they were wrong. Now, I could tell you the backstory of this particular picture. But I’d so much rather hear your theories. Photo credit (such as it is): Justine Larbalestier
Traveling Thursday
Posted on May 25, 2006 27 Comments
I’ve got nothing for you because I’m on the road at the moment. So, here, have an open thread. To get things started: Hey, how about those Enron court decisions?
When Reviews Happen
Posted on May 24, 2006 9 Comments
I meant to write this up yesterday but didn’t; it’s a question from Lars, from the entry about my review in the San Antonio Express-News: Hi John, whenever you mention a review it always gets me wondering about the reviewing process in general. Do books like yours usually just encounter a few waves of press […]
Julia Spencer-Fleming Interview on By The Way
Posted on May 24, 2006 3 Comments
This week I interviewed multiple-award-winning mystery author Julia Spencer-Fleming over at By The Way. If you don’t go over and read the interview, you’ll always regret it. Always. Also, her latest novel To Darkness and to Death is about to come out in paperback. If you don’t go and buy it, you will also always […]
Help Me Build a FAQ
Posted on May 24, 2006 42 Comments
I’m thinking of putting together an FAQ for me and for this site, because I find I’m answering a lot of the same questions over and over and I’d like to have one central document to point people to. Wanna help me out? Here are the questions I know I’m going to have so far […]
Word 2007 Beta — Shiny!
Posted on May 23, 2006 68 Comments
Ooooh, pretty. I managed to snag the Office 2007 Beta today and have been playing around with it a bit, which is to say I’ve been playing around with Word 2007 because I couldn’t really give a crap about the rest of the Office suite. So far: Very pretty. I’ll be fiddling with some of […]
When Birds Attack Patio Doors
Posted on May 23, 2006 40 Comments
This cardinal has been attacking the back patio door all day long. I was wondering what the hell was up with that (and indeed, created a poll on the subject, which you may vote on here), when it was explained to me by the guy who delivers meat and dessert products to my door: Cardinals […]
The Other Campbell Award
Posted on May 23, 2006 5 Comments
The finalist list for the John W. Campbell award is up, and congrats for my fellow 2006 Hugoites Charlie Stross, Ken MacLeod and Robert Charles Wilson for having their books make the final cut. The winner will be announced in July. This Campbell award is not the Campbell award I’m up for; the former is […]
We’re Ruled By Morons, Part the Infinite
Posted on May 22, 2006 104 Comments
Oh, for an Attorney General who can actually understand the Bill of Rights: The government has the legal authority to prosecute journalists for publishing classified information, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said yesterday… Mr. Gonzales said that the administration promoted and respected the right of the press that is protected under the First Amendment. “But […]
A Musical Dichotomy
Posted on May 22, 2006 26 Comments
Finally got a chance to catch the Eurovision performance of Finnish band Lordi’s “Hard Rock Hallelujah,” which won that particular musical contest, proving without a doubt — if there still was one — that This is Spinal Tap was not comedy, it was prophecy. To clean your brain, here’s Petra Haden’s lovely acapella version of […]
Ghost Brigades Review in the San Antonio Express-News
Posted on May 22, 2006 9 Comments
And it’s a pretty good one: In Heinleinesque fashion, the book is loaded with scenes of comradeship, isolation, ruthlessness and the protocols, which govern the lives of active-duty soldiers. But this is where Scalzi, famous for his blog “The Whatever,” surpasses Heinlein. Scalzi weaves in subtle discussions of humanity’s growing fear of aging and our […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying