Monthly Archives: October 2009

Happy Halloween

Hope your day is spooktacular, and whatnot. Larger versions of the spooky corn picture above available here. Also, Kyle Cassidy recounts his visit to the Scalzi Compound yesterday, here, and includes a couple pictures, including one of me and the dog. If you’re a Kodi fan, you know what to do.

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Ghlaghghee, Being Less Than Cooperative

Photographer Kyle Cassidy was here today to take photos of me in my natural habitat (i.e., my office), and naturally Ghlaghghee had to be part of that, as she is more famous than I. But that’s not to say she wasn’t sporting an attitude. Hey, it’s not easy being an Internet-famous cat. It was lovely […]

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Here’s a Question For You Movie Buffs

Not to stump you, but because I genuinely don’t know the answer and wonder if one of you does: Who is the youngest person to win an Academy Award not in an acting category? Discount also the recipients of the Academy’s Juvenile Award, as they were all also actors. At the moment, for youngest winner […]

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Athena Swears That Any Rumor of Her Turning Into a Zombie Is Just That, a Rumor

Be that as it may, I am skeptical. And yes, a couple days early. Here in Ohio, they have “Beggars’ Night,” on the thinking that Halloween has been colonized by adults, who will have lots of drinks at their Halloween parties and then take to the road, not necessarily watching for tyke-sized ghosties and ghoulies […]

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The Big Idea: Diana Pharaoh Francis

From a small mud volcano in southeast Asia to the very end of the world? That’s quite a journey. But it’s the journey Diana Pharaoh Francis took in the process of writing Bitter Night, the first book in Francis’ new “Horngate Witches” series of fantasy novels. Along the way, Francis considers a new kind of […]

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Science Fiction and Best Picture Oscars

Over at the AMC column this week, I ask: What will it take for a science fiction film to actually win the Best Picture Oscar? The answer, I think, is provided by the recent example of fantasy’s first Best Picture winner, The Return of the King. Go on and find out how I reckon it […]

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Stupid Ideas Are Still Stupid Even When Amazon Does Them

This is funny: Amazon has apparently just patented a “system and method for marking content,” in which the text of a e-book could be changed slightly with any particular download in order to distinguish that copy from other copies — so if the document is then let loose on the Internets, it could theoretically be […]

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Quick Win7 and BlackBerry 5.0 Updates

Earlier in the week I upgraded both my computers to Windows 7 and my BlackBerry Storm to the BackBerry 5.0 OS, so I thought I’d do a quick review of both. And the review is: Hey, I like both just fine. They make sense, the make my electronic thingies run better, at least on the […]

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Times Are Tough All Over

Seriously, though, I’m totally happy for Steve Perry that he’s got a gig shilling for UPS. Every time I see this dude in a UPS ad, I can’t help but expect him to break out into “Separate Ways” or something. Although for a delivery service, maybe “Send Her My Love” might be more appropriate. Either […]

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The Big Idea: Nicole Peeler

Does a “beach read” novel need an intellectual justification? Probably not, but if it actually has one, that’s always a bonus. And as it happens, literature professor and debut novelist Nicole Peeler has some rigorous and righteous background justification for her novel Tempest Rising, which follows the mystical adventures of half-selkie Jane True. Not only […]

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What Obama’s Doing With Fox News

I think some people are under the impression that the White House wants Fox News to disappear. Nothing, I suspect, could be further from the truth. The White House is in fact delighted that Fox News and its merry cast of commentators exists. Nor is the White House vexed that its every pronouncement concerning Fox […]

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Wallpapery Shots

As a number of you have expressed an interest in having some of the photos from earlier today (and even before that) as computer wallpapers, I’ve created a Flickr set specifically for wallpaper-worthy shots of mine, so you can use them to your (non-commercial and personal) heart’s delight. The set is called “Wallpapery Shots” and […]

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