Monthly Archives: May 2008

A Small Bit of Business Etiquette

This is not something that I thought to mention before, but now is as good a time as any: If you are wanting to engage me in some sort of business proposition, please e-mail me about it and don’t leave it on Whatever as a comment. First, while I’m happy to tell people what I’m […]

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Now This is What You Call a Photo Op

75,000 people at a single Obama rally in Oregon. Yes, they may be all pot-smoking hippies up there in Oregon, but honestly, even if they are, when was the last time 75,000 pot-smoking hippies managed to get it together enough to be in the same place at the same time? I’ll give you Bonnaroo, but […]

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Oasis 21 This Weekend

A reminder to various and sundry that I will be spending my Memorial Day weekend in Orlando, Florida as a Special Guest of Oasis 21, which also includes David Gerrold, Paul Vincenti and Bill and Brenda Sutton as Guests of Honor. This is my only scheduled appearance in Florida this year, so if you live […]

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Hey Batter Swing

Athena’s playing softball again this year; here she is up at bat and letting this particular ball get past her. In previous years, the coaches pitched to the girls; this year the girls pitch, which means lots and lots and lots and lots of walks. Well, I suppose they do have to learn. And it’s […]

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For You Europeans

I’ve been led to understand that Bebo is one of the more popular social networking sites over there on your fair continent, and several folks there have asked me to put up a Bebo profile, because the inability to friend me on their social network of choice is causing them unspeakable amounts of angst and […]

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Truck Technology

Also in the LA Times this morning (guess which Web site I’ve been reading), a piece on how the trucking industry is now finally pushing itself to get more than five miles a gallon out of its trucks, spurred on by (you guessed it) high fuel prices, which mean that it can cost up to […]

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That Activist Judge

Apropos to the discussion of California’s Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage and whether the ruling was the work of “judicial activism,” the Los Angeles Times has a profile on the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, a Republican appointed by a Republican governor (and then later reconfirmed by the voters, as is California’s […]

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Just in Case I’m Never Heard From Again

My daughter and her friend have been holed up in her room this evening, doing “scientific experiments.” Every once in a while I’ll get updates, like so: “Great news, dad! The eggs are GAINING OXYGEN!” And then back into the room. The eggs, people. They are gaining oxygen. I’m off to hide now.

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The Cure, For What Ails You

New single from The Cure, from their upcoming album. It’s happy Cure this time, which is good, because for the last album or two, ol’ Robert Smith’s been needing a hug: It’s called “The Only One,” incidentally. It’s no “Just Like Heaven,” or “Friday I’m in Love,” but it does the job, me thinks.

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Holy Hate Mail, Batman!

Subterranean Press tells me yesterday’s pre-orders for Hate Mail were well into the three-figure range. Since we’re only printing a thousand of them, that means a fair chunk of the entire stock was sold in the first day. So, two things here: 1. You guys rock. Thank you. 2. If you’re planning to order one, […]

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Daniel Lanois Goes Indie

If you were to ask who I was a “true fan” of, it would probably be Daniel Lanois. Lanois is better known — to most folks who know him at all — as a producer (of U2, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson and Emmylou Harris) and as a musical collaborator, most notably with Brian Eno. But […]

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More Proof We Live in a Science Fictional World, 5/16/08

This dude is now very likely to compete in the Olympics — — and the reason that he was initially denied a chance to compete was because it was ruled that his prosthetics gave him too much of an advantage over runners with standard-issue legs. That was just overruled, but the fact that was how […]

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Decision Coming

So, there are 278 entries in the Zoe’s Tale ARC contest that got in before the deadline, and a lot of you folks wrote actual short stories, so the finding of a winner might take a smidge longer than I expected (especially since I have some real work to do today). So to cover my […]

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Why It’s Good to Follow Links

The excellent folks at io9 do me a solid and link to my AMC column on Speed Racer today, but some of the folks commenting there don’t appear to have actually read the column before commenting, because a fair portion of the comments boil down to “John Scalzi is completely wrong about this because [insert […]

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Same Sex Marriage in California

It’s on its way: The California Supreme Court ruled today that same-sex couples should be permitted to marry, rejecting state marriage laws as discriminatory. But note: The state high court’s ruling was unlikely to end the debate over gay matrimony in California. A group has circulated petitions for a November ballot initiative that would amend […]

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On the Radio

Whatever reader and commenter Kate Baker recently had some music she wrote and performed played on a radio program called “Off the Beaten Track,” which is broadcast on WELY in Minnesota. Kate got permission to stream the segment on her own site, so if you’ve not heard Kate’s very lovely voice and songs, here’s your […]

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