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 a snob about it.… Read more →
Year: 2008
Pay Attention
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… Read more →
A Sunday Miscellany
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 I found interesting: First up,… Read more →
If I Were Nebu-lord
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 Peter Watt’s “no, this is… Read more →
The word ‘knell’ is in a lot of his stuff.
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… Read more →
Religion Bashing For Thursday
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 cardinal,… Read more →
We’re Living In Science Fiction: Street-Level Nanotech
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 1982… or 1986, if like me, you first read Burning Chrome after the Mirrorshades anthology gave you a startling eye-opening. though, we’ve also known that there… Read more →
So far, so good
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 day, then went down… Read more →
On H.P.L.
Without any further commentary, I present Clark Ashton Smith, writing about H. P. Lovecraft: To Howard Phillips Lovecraft Lover of hills and fields and towns antique, How hast thou wandered hence On ways not found before, Beyond the dawnward spires of Providence? Hast thou gone forth to seek Some older bourn than these– Some Arkham of the prime and central… Read more →
Hmm
Why do I alway leave my packing until the last minute? Is it just that I enjoy the stress? Airport, here I come. Read more →
Can Not Process Data
You know those hoary old SF stories where the hero defeats the robot/intelligent energy matrix/computer/whatever by giving it information that can not be logically processed–isn’t “Is the following statement true? ‘This statement is false.’” the classic one?–and thus causing the super-powerful processing of the robot/intelligent energy matrix/computer/whatever to burn out, usually accompanied by a nice visual of electrical explosions? Well,… Read more →
I’m Excited: Shadow Unit
Well, this is certainly the best “online entertainment” news I’ve read in a while. I’ll let one of the participants explain: Shadow Unit is, more or less, the website for a serial drama in internet form. Or possibly it’s a fan site for a TV show that doesn’t exist. Over the next couple of months, the site will be updated… Read more →
Here We Go Again
Yup. It’s around the world again. Same route, same distance, slightly longer stay this time. I checked it out this time, the straight-line distances between the airports are (I put the imperial numbers in for the Yanks, in the parentheses): Outbound Halifax – London (Heathrow) : 4589km (2852) London (Heathrow) – Hong Kong : 9653km (5998) Hong Kong – Melbourne:… Read more →
Quote Of The Day
“People who have to apply rules like them because they eliminate the need to exercise judgment.” –Ernie The Attorney He goes on to suggest that some people don’t want to have to defend a judgment, but I suspect there are a really large number of people who are too lazy to get that far: they just don’t want to have… Read more →
Exceeding Expectations: Republicans and The Crazy
Seriously? I mean, seriously? Republicans picked Huckabee? Even in crazy Jesusland, isn’t “I won’t sign this bill because calling a tornado an ‘act of God’ makes God look bad” crazy enough to make someone unelectable? I expected some ludicrousness from Americans, especially Republicans, but my expectations have been exceeded. And I thought the TSA facecrime thing would be the dumbest… Read more →
