Monthly Archives: June 2007
WHATEVER IS DOWN (Was: Rental Zen, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Entirely Ignore DRM)
Posted on June 27, 2007
NOTICE, 11am, 6/28/07: Whatever seems to be having some sort of extreme database issue at the moment. The short story: As of just short of midnight last night, Whatever’s database apparently stopped accepting new data, including new entries and new comments (I’m able to post this, apparently, because it’s into an article already posted. Don’t […]
2007 Best Fan Writer Hugo Essays in Japanese
Posted on June 27, 2007
As the Worldcon is taking place this year in Japan, and I am nominated for the Best Fan Writer Hugo, I thought it would be both useful and respectful to get translations of some of my SF-related entries in 2006 so that Japanese fans and Hugo voters would be able to have an informed view […]
Ficlets Author Interview: Robert J. Sawyer
Posted on June 27, 2007
Look! Another Author Interview! I’m on fire over there at Ficlets. This time around I’m interviewing none other than Robert J. Sawyer, who is talking about his new book Rollback and opining on a number of subjects relating to science fiction, Canada, the position of fiction in society, and the various intersections of each. And […]
Helpless
Posted on June 27, 2007
Continuing what is apparently a week of Canadian female singers, here’s kd lang singing Neil Young’s “Helpless” at the 2005 Juno Awards; seems that Young was supposed to be there but was ill and in the hospital, which explains lang’s intro. However, if you’re going to have to get someone to fill in for you, […]
The Point at Which I Stop Being the Perfect Consumer
Posted on June 26, 2007
You know, I’m as gaa-gaa over tech as the next geeky, overfed American nerd, but at a certain point fiscal restraint kicks in and temps down my need for the next new hot thing. Thus is my ardor for the iPhone suddenly cooled when it’s revealed that the low-end phone plan for the thing is […]
ALA Recap
Posted on June 26, 2007
I spent my weekend in the Washington DC area at the ALA conference, which was actually a whole lot of fun. The first reason was that I’m a tremendous fan of librarians in a general sense, and the specific librarians I met over the weekend were fairly excellent as individuals, and basically a whole lot […]
Basement Apartment
Posted on June 26, 2007
Oooh, neat. I found the video for Sarah Harmer’s song “Basement Apartment”: I love this song, because I think it pretty much nails that place in time when you’re in your early 20s, and you have that college degree but no money because you’re killing time as a barista or comic book store staff member […]
Some Very Specific Advice
Posted on June 26, 2007
A really ripe and juicy nectarine is a true taste treat, but you probably shouldn’t eat it directly over your computer’s keyboard. You’re welcome.
An Interesting Constitutional Wrinkle
Posted on June 25, 2007
Glenn Reynolds points out what I must say is an absolutely hilarious point of impeachment order: Impeach Cheney if you want, but do bear in mind that he’ll preside over his own impeachment trial. Now, that’s a constitutional crisis. And it does sort of make you yearn for the days when Vice-Presidents were, in fact, […]
In What is Becoming a Depressingly Regular Announcement:
Posted on June 25, 2007 1 Comment
I’ve now presumably caught up with all my e-mail that I left lingering while I was gallivanting around the country. So this means that if you’ve sent me e-mail in the last several days that you were hoping to get a response to and I didn’t respond, now would be the time to send it […]
A Question of Medium-Sized Sociological Importance (Or Not)
Posted on June 25, 2007
If there really is a cultural divide between the people who are on MySpace and the people who are on Facebook, as this draft of an academic paper suggests, what does it mean that I have accounts on both? I suppose I could suggest it points to my own white-trash-yet-elite status (living in a mobile […]
Author Interview: Allen Steele
Posted on June 25, 2007
I’m back in full swing with the author interviews over there at Ficlets, and today I’ve got me some red-hot Allen Steele interview action. Steele, who, incidentally, annoyed me mightily by making his latest novel Spindrift so compulsively readable that when I brought it with me on tour, I’d finished it before I landed at […]
I Am Leaving In The Morning For the Land That I Long to See Again
Posted on June 24, 2007
More traveling today. While I am away, immerse yourself in this: “Blackwater,” by David Sylvian (in the guise of Raintree Crow). It’s easily my favorite Sylvian song. The video is negligible; close your eyes and drink in the music. Incidentally, the ALA conference at which I spoke was excellent; we had good talks and met […]
Nippon 2007 or Lack Thereof
Posted on June 23, 2007
I don’t know that this will come as too much of a surprise to anyone, but I won’t be attending Nippon 2007. There are a number of reasons for this, but two main ones. The first is that I have two books due pretty much exactly when Nippon 2007 occurs (the novel and the revise […]
Random Crap 6/22/07
Posted on June 22, 2007
I’m about to head off to get a plane and fly to DC, so in lieu of coherent thoughts, a bunch of little things: * This happened yesterday while I was visiting my friends Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier. Also while I was visiting them, at least a mile of skateboarders went skating by — […]
Surfacing in NYC
Posted on June 21, 2007
Not to be all mysterious about it, but the reason I was traveling is in picture above: I went to NYC, to the Tor offices, to take part in a autograph session involving the LongPen — a remote controlled signing apparatus in which I (or any other author) scribble my autograph onto a computer screen, […]
Everything I Read Online is Pornography
Posted on June 20, 2007 1 Comment
I’m sitting in the airport in Dayton. It has free wireless Internet, which is good, but over on top of that free wireless Internet is the Webmarshal filtering system, which is bad. It’s bad because it is apparently absolutely indiscriminate in what it classifies as pornography, and, thus, blocks. Among the sites currently blocked as […]
Author Interview: Jennifer Ouellette
Posted on June 20, 2007 1 Comment
I’ve finally gotten my act back together and restarted the Ficlets Author Interview series: I sent out a bunch of well-delayed author questions today and will be sending out another batch in a couple of days. And — even better — I got one set of answers back, from Jennifer Ouellette, author of the highly […]
One Small Thing
Posted on June 19, 2007
Someone sent me an e-mail noting (in a humorous fashion) that it was very clever of me to collect up all your money for a donation I can take a tax deduction on. Not that I think any of you were particularly worried about this, but in case you were, no, I have no plans […]
Mulberries
Posted on June 19, 2007
You would think that after living somewhere for six years one would know what’s in one’s yard, but remember, I have a big yard. Thus it came as a bit of a surprise to me recently to discover that I have a mulberry tree on the edge of my property; here’s one of the mulberries. […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying