Monthly Archives: March 2008
Wacky Database Madness
Posted on March 31, 2008 5 Comments
My WordPress seems to have momentarily not wanted to speak to my database. It seems to have corrected itself. Who knows if it’ll happen again. But if you suddenly can’t connect here, that’s what it is (naturally, if you can’t connect, you won’t see this message on the front page of Whatever. But I send […]
Reader Request Week 2008 #4: Where I Am Now
Posted on March 31, 2008 18 Comments
Dan asks: Cast yourself back to the Scalzi of twenty years ago. Now, in your life, are you anywhere near where you thought you’d be? Yeah, pretty much I am. Twenty years ago I was a first-year student in college, and I had a weekly column in the college newspaper and I had bluffed my […]
Reader Request Week 2008 #3: Sex and Video Games
Posted on March 31, 2008 28 Comments
Arachne Jericho wants to know my opinion on: Sex and video games Well, I’m a fan of each individually, that’s for sure. As for sex in video games, I don’t have any major problem with it philosophically; the age of your average game player is the late 20s, so presumably they know about sex (at […]
Reader Request Week 2008 #2: Technological Gifts
Posted on March 31, 2008 31 Comments
Daniel asks: You are the the Great God Scalzi, but sadly you are not quite omnipotent. In fact you only have the ability to create five new technologies. Which 5 technologies will you bestow upon humanity in 2008? Five seems a little much; if you choose the right five, humans won’t have to do a […]
Reader Request Week 2008 #1: Homeschooling
Posted on March 31, 2008 194 Comments
For this year’s Reader Request Week, I’m going to try to do something a little different. Over the last five years I answered one (or occasionally two) of the questions a day, and then posted a follow-up entry with shorter answers to left-over questions. This year, I think I’ll try answering more questions, but writing […]
Fiddle Fiddle
Posted on March 30, 2008 17 Comments
To everyone who missed the “last post, next post” navigation on the single entry pages: I just put it back in. Now the site is ever so slightly easier to trundle through. You’re welcome. I may do some additional fiddling tonight, so don’t be terribly surprised if the site suddenly spazzes out and then equally […]
Upgrading Tonight
Posted on March 30, 2008 8 Comments
Whatever may be offline for some amount of time this evening as I update WordPress to version 2.5. If you can’t reach it, don’t panic. Also, yes, I’ve backed up everything. Update, 7:37: All updated. Damn, but upgrading is easy in WordPress.
Where Was I, Anyway?
Posted on March 30, 2008 34 Comments
Well, here’s a hint: For those of you not up on these things, that’s a headcrab, featured in the games Half-Life and Half-Life 2, by the video game company Valve Software, which I visited on my trip. What did I see there? I can’t tell you (I signed an NDA). What did I do there? […]
How I Avoid Speeding Tickets
Posted on March 30, 2008 61 Comments
Because, as it happens, I get out of speeding tickets nine out of ten times I pull over. Here’s how I do it: I admit I’m speeding and tell the cop to please go ahead and write me up. Usually the cop is so shocked that I’m not even trying to argue with him that […]
Yes, I Am In Chicago
Posted on March 30, 2008 10 Comments
Because, honestly. Where else would I be? Home? Madness! Sleeping now. Hopefully will actually be home sometime tomorrow before noon. We shall see.
Irony
Posted on March 29, 2008 10 Comments
This time, I didn’t even have to get to Chicago before I was delayed! This time for four hours! At least! Go me! At least I was first in line for rebooking. How are you?
Oh, Look, Another Travel Day
Posted on March 29, 2008 6 Comments
I love being places. The getting there? Eh, not so much. But since teleportation is still science fiction (thanks so much, engineers), I still have to be shipped around in moving boxes and flying tubes. So, more travel for me today. I may pop in again if I am once again stranded in Chicago, as […]
The Big Idea: Scott Sigler
Posted on March 28, 2008 24 Comments
While I’m off in Lots-of-Meetings Land, here’s a fun Big Idea for you, from author Scott Sigler. Sigler made quite a big splash being one of the the first and most successful authors to podcast his writing, garnering up to 30,000 listeners per book — which naturally enough, I think, convinced publishers to say, “hmmm, […]
Landed
Posted on March 28, 2008 13 Comments
And only five hours late! I wish I could be more interesting about it, but it’s late and the hotel bed is calling to me, muffled though its voice may be under a vasty mountain of pillows. More later, although posting Friday will be scarce because I will mostly be in meetings. Yes, I am […]
Now That I Think About It
Posted on March 27, 2008 47 Comments
Has a flight ever left Chicago O’Hare on time? Like, ever? I’m sure one has. I just don’t think I’ve ever been on one. (Guess where I am. Guess whose flight is delayed.) Well, I might have been on one that left on time, if the flight I had into O’Hare hadn’t been delayed (due […]
Another Travel Day
Posted on March 27, 2008 8 Comments
This time I’m traveling through Saturday; pretty sure I’ll be checking in on a semi-regular basis, however. I’ll be posting a Big Idea piece either later today or tomorrow, as well (and then, I think, more than one next week — I have a lot of early April releases to highlight). In the meantime, get […]
Reader Request Week 2008: Get Your Requests In!
Posted on March 27, 2008 180 Comments
Every year, right around this time, I put away my imbecilic obsessions here at Whatever and turn the spotlight onto your imbecilic obsessions instead. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time once again for Reader Request Week, in which you call the shots — you choose the topics I write about — you make me […]
Feeling Spammy
Posted on March 26, 2008 11 Comments
Small technical note: More comments than usual seem to be getting caught by the spam filter over the last couple of days. I’m hoping this gets trained out of its behavior, but if you find your comment not showing up immediately, this is probably why. And if one never shows up, uh, sorry. Not intentional. […]
The “I’m Writing This to Totally Make You Jealous” Post
Posted on March 26, 2008 64 Comments
In which I tell you about some of the ARCs I’ve received recently that mean I get to read all the books you want to read before you do. Bwa ha ha ha hah ha! Hi, I’m evil. Let’s see what we got: * Saturn’s Children, by Charlie Stross — It’s Stross does late-period Heinlein! […]
Cover This
Posted on March 26, 2008 41 Comments
Tor art director Irene Gallo, prompted by a blog post by Pyr publisher Lou Anders, talks a bit about cover art and what “works” and why when it comes to sf/f fantasy books, and notes a point that many people who gripe about covers miss: … as much as I’d like it to be otherwise, […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying