Archive for January, 2008

I’m glad it’s not just me

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

AN EXCUSE FOR NOT RETURNING THE VISIT OF A FRIEND
Do not be offended because
I am slow to go out. You know
Me too well for that. On my lap
I hold my little girl. At my
Knees stands my handsome little son.
One has just begun to talk.
The other chatters without
Stopping. They hang on my clothes
And follow my every [...]

Freestyle Friday

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

And here you have:

My favourite Clash song when considering performances by the Clash. (I.e. I’d rather hear the Clash perform this than any other song. But, I’d still rather hear Danny Michel do Lost In A Supermarket.)
Warren Zevon’s Hollywood tragedy. I love a song with a story, especially if there’s enough vagueness to allow me [...]

Ambivalence

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

On the one hand, I am really looking forward to being home.
On the other hand I am really not looking forward to the process of getting home.
My flight leaves Melbourne in two hours, then it’s 7 hours to Singapore, a 2 hour wait, then 14 and a half hours to London, then a 6 hour [...]

OK, You have to admit, that’s pretty damn funny

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

Jerry O’Connell’s message

In Passing: Vlado’s

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

I had no connectivity at the hotel last night, have been working full-on all day today, and am shortly going to head out for my (apparently) annual trip to Vlado’s.
Since I start heading back home tomorrow, I’ll also have to pack tonight, so the odds are good that even if the Internet connectivity problem is [...]

It’s like a movie plot

Monday, January 21st, 2008

Did you see this bit on BoingBoing?
Adrian says: According to the Swedish daily newspaper Expressen.se, police suspect that a team of thieves operating in Sweden are using little people hidden in hockey bags and placed in the cargo holds of buses to loot passengers luggage while in transit.
They link to the original story in [...]

Jargon and Communication

Monday, January 21st, 2008

Speaking of Scotsmen, let me say that as a general rule I am quite a fan of Hal Duncan’s blog–especially those gigantic blog entries where he intellectually swashbuckles his way through certain philosophical issues with verve and panache, using academic jargon like Mrs. Parker used wit.
In particular, I have been intending for a while now [...]

Something Good: Kenny Blyth reads Christopher Brookmyre

Monday, January 21st, 2008

I had occasion to discuss my position on audiobooks recently while driving around Melbourne.
I don’t think I’ve written about those positions here before, and indeed the extent to which I make use of audiobooks might surprise people who expect me to be a purist in my love of fiction.
Actually, I am a bit of [...]

Pay Attention

Sunday, January 20th, 2008

I have always known
That at last I would
Take this road, but yesterday
I did not know that it would be today.
Ariwara no Narihira (translated by Kenneth Rexroth)

A strange old man
Stops me,
Looking out of my deep mirror.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (translated by Kenneth Rexroth)

The mists rise over
The still pools at Asuka.
Memory does not
Pass away so easily.
Yamabe no [...]

A Sunday Miscellany

Sunday, January 20th, 2008

Well, I’ve had a very busy weekend here in Melbourne–which I may get around to writing up at some point later tonight–and now I’ve made it back to my hotel/apartment, and it seems like a good time for me to do a little bit of value-added linkblogging. So, no theme, just lots of things that [...]

If I Were Nebu-lord

Sunday, January 20th, 2008

For what it’s worth, if I were picking the winners of the Nebula Awards right now (not the ones I think will win, but rather the ones I thought were the best) from the preliminary ballot the winners, according to my arbitrary and would be:
For novel, either Hal Duncan’s brilliant mess Vellum, or else [...]

The word ‘knell’ is in a lot of his stuff.

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

Extracted from The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore, Collected by Himself with Explanatory Notes.
As by the shore, at break of day,
A vanquished chief expiring lay,
Upon the sands, with broken sword,
       He traced his farewell to the free;
And there the last unfinished word
       He dying wrote, was “Liberty!”
At night a sea-bird shrieked the knell
Of him who thus [...]

Religion Bashing For Thursday

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

OK, let’s close some tabs.
First off, let’s start with our old friend, the head Inquisitioner, Pope Benedict.

It appears he’s been a naughty fellow.
A BBC documentary has exposed that Pope Benedict XVI, aka Cardinal Ratzinger, played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests.
In 2001, while he was a [...]

We’re Living In Science Fiction: Street-Level Nanotech

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

There’s certainly something to be said for wild and crazy, “the universe is my canvas”, science fiction ideas–things with broad scope that seem tenuously plausible but highly disconnected from our day-to-day lives. Ever since 19821 though, we’ve also known that there are results that are just as surprising, jarring, and interesting as some of those [...]

So far, so good

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

So, I did manage to travel half-way around the world between Friday and Sunday, popping in on London and Honk Kong before settling down in Melbourne.
My days have been pretty work-focused so far: Monday I essentially worked all day, returned to the hotel ate dinner, and was asleep before 9. Yesterday (Tuesday) I worked all [...]