Monthly Archives: October 2015

The $50 Fire Tablet: First Impressions

In its continuing bid to attempt to take over the world so no one ever will buy anything from anyone but them, Amazon a couple of weeks ago released a $50, 7-inch Fire tablet, designed, one presumes, to entice the curious, the cheap and those on limited incomes. Well, it worked on me; I was […]

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On the Occasion of Reaching 90,000 Twitter Followers

I noticed I was less than 30 followers away from 90K Twitter followers a little bit ago, and said if we reached 90K in 20 minutes I would murder an 80s song (in retrospect I should have murdered a 90s song, but, well, whatever). I had barely tweeted that when I crossed the 90k threshold. […]

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The Big Idea: Ellen Kushner

If you’re a fan of Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint, then you’re going to be very happy with Tremontaine, a prequel serialized story that takes place in the same world, fifteen years earlier. Kushner, who is spearheading the novelization with co-writers Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, Joel Defner, Racheline Maltese and Patty Bryant, is here to talk […]

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On My Way Home

Soon I will be on an airplane heading back to home, and when I get there, that is it for the year. Which is to say, no other public events and (for the moment at least) no other planned business travel. This makes me slightly giggly. I hardly know what to do with myself! Maybe […]

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The Big Idea: Lila Bowen

The author of Wake of Vultures, Lila Bowen, does whatever the hell she wants (so does Delilah S. Dawson, who is Lila Bowen when she’s not being Delilah Dawson). And what the hell does she want to do now? Tell you her big idea for her book. LILA BOWEN: Did you ever see that episode […]

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Fall From the Air

Taken as I was taking off from O’Hare to Seattle/Tacoma this morning. Just a few minutes ago, in fact. Yes, I am posting this from the middle of the sky. Right now it’s just all clouds and blue. How are you? Remember Tacoma, I’m doing an event for you tomorrow at the Tacoma public library […]

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The Big Idea: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

In their novel Illuminae, authors Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff decided to break stuff. What stuff? And why? They’re here to explain. AMIE KAUFMAN and JAY KRISTOFF: The Big Idea behind Illuminae? Break the idea of what a book could be. Epistolary novels aren’t a new concept. The conceit of telling a story through documents—be […]

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Get Steppin’

I needed a new bathroom scale (contrary to what I wrote on Twitter and Facebook, I did not kill the last bathroom scale with a hammer for the crime of informing me I was overweight; in fact one of its battery contacts had corroded, rendering the electronic scale useless), so I went looking for one […]

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Why I Don’t Drink Coffee, Featuring Maureen Johnson

*sits down next to you**hands you a coffee**takes your coffee*Well.What do you do now. — Maureen Johnson (@maureenjohnson) October 20, 2015 @maureenjohnson Thank you, because I don't like coffee. — John Scalzi (@scalzi) October 20, 2015 @scalzi You've never tried MY coffee. *coffee fizzes* — Maureen Johnson (@maureenjohnson) October 20, 2015 @maureenjohnson COFFEE IS NOT […]

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The Big Idea: Catherynne M. Valente

I could write a lot about Catherynne Valente and her new novel Radiance, but instead let me just say two words: Space whales. Space whales, people! CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE: Radiance doesn’t have a big idea at its heart. It has about six. It’s a decopunk alt-history Hollywood space opera mystery thriller. With space whales. Over-egging […]

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Always and Never

Here’s a question I’ve been sitting on for a while before I answered, mostly because of travel and other commitments but also because I was waiting for a good time to answer it. It comes from Avdi Grimm, who writes: A question for if you’re ever bored and out of anything else to blog about […]

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The 1% of Problems

Today’s Thing About Rich People Appalling the Internet: “Wealth therapy tackles woes of the rich: ‘It’s really isolating to have lots of money,’” an article in the Guardian about therapists who help the rich deal with the apparent loneliness and isolation of having a shitload of money. Here’s one of the more choice quotes from the […]

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A Tale of Two Tablets

I’m doing some work on a project that requires iOS, and my ipad 3 is now sufficiently out of date, processor-wise, that it makes no sense to use it for the project (and anyway, the home button stopped working, too), so I went and ordered an iPad Mini 4, which arrived about a week ago. I’ve […]

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