Courtesy of Andrew Wheeler, I bring you my new choice for dramatic readings, narrowly edging out me previous preference for reading passages from the Book Of Revelations with a hammy Southern Baptist preacher delivery. I’m not sure yet what voice to use to give the text the presentation it deserves. The text follows after the jump. Read more →
Year: 2009
Sunday Night, Not Too Serious
I’m just closing some tabs here as I’m watching the adaptation of Choke. It’s actually a pretty good adaptation. Or maybe it’s just Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston carrying it. Anyway, on to the tabs–nothing too deep tonight: I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to hear that Sarah Palin’s daughter and her hockey player fiancee have broken up. I… Read more →
Cheney’s Assassination Bureau
You’ve probably seen the story by now: Hersh replied, “After 9/11, I haven’t written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven’t been called on it yet.” Hersh then went on to describe a second… Read more →
Apostates running the temple
“There are too many long-winded articles, there’s no search engines and worst of all they get ink on your fingers.” If you thought Irvine’s commentary on half of the people studying the writing of fiction not being people who read for pleasure was bitterly amusing, this story should crack you up. Read more →
The appropriate response to their garbage
I tip my hat to the students of the University of Chicago, who nicely illustrate the appropriate response to the Westboro Baptist Church: mockery. They were accompanied down the street by a group of students mocking the WBC’s message. The students held a sign reading “Figs Doom Nations” and planted themselves across the street from the WBC, drawing from a… Read more →
SF Writers Say Smart Things: Irvine On Literary Taste
We have very nearly succeeded in turning reading–that most active of cultural activities–into a passive extension of mass media. Alex Irvine takes a quick swing at the kind of literature produced when about half of potential writers don’t read for pleasure. I actually wanted to quote the whole second paragraph, but since the post was only two paragraphs long, that… Read more →
Not just a sappy Dad post
There you see Sarah receiving her first belt at her taekwondo class. The final part of her belt test involved kicking through a board. I expected it to be some kind of styrofoam or balsa or something–she’s only four years old after all. But no, it was a pine plank, and a decently thick one. Witness: I’m insanely proud of… Read more →
Eight links make a post
And now, for another exciting post of links and short comments: I’ve always been aware of having been gifted with a pretty powerful attention span. I have always kind of assumed it came from becoming a reader at a very young age, but I guess it’s equally plausible that things are actually ordered the other way and my resistance to… Read more →
Aside
I just received the strangest phone call.
I answered and a recording told me that I had received a text message from a Rogers Wireless subscriber. Then recording then ended and a text-to-speech system read out the content of the message. Apparently Rogers hasn’t invested heavily in TTS, since the message sounded like SAM reading text on my Commodore in the 80s, but that only made the whole thing weirder.
The content of the message?
“The power of Christ compels you. The power of Christ compels you. The power of Christ compels you. The power of Christ compels you.”
You can see it everywhere you look: people just ain’t no good
Hmm… A study by the Ponemon Institute found that more than 59 percent of those surveyed kept corporate data after leaving their jobs. The survey, which was sponsored by Symantec, included responses from 945 adult employees who had lost or left a job in 2008. The most commonly stolen pieces of information were e-mail lists and non-financial business information, taken… Read more →
Minor Meditations On Religion and Neurobiology
There’s lots to think about in the write up on recent studies into the relation between neural wiring and the concept religion at the New Scientist. A really simplified version would be that the brain has a couple of built in biases that make the concept of religion arise almost naturally. One is that we have different cognitive systems for… Read more →
Aside
Note, I am rescinding the previous statement about the ultimate snack food. The One True Ultimate Snack Food is now the Luxure Cashews from Natursource. That is all.
What I’ve been up to
As you might have guessed from my continuing absence, work has not slacked off yet. However, that’s not the only thing that’s been contributing–real life has also been hopping a bit. A short summary: Sunday night Trish and I took Sarah to a sleepover, and then went to dinner and a show. Or maybe “a gig” would be more accurate.… Read more →
Lottery
Among the artifacts were a few scribbled notes and I recognized the handwriting. Chris McLaren was a film major who worked for us in the early ’80’s, a skinny kid who wore black clothes and spiked hair and had an intense interest in Alistair Crowley, Roman Polanski, the Illuminati and role playing games. Even when you were face to face… Read more →
Friends of my youth, a last adieu!
Reading last night about the death of Philip José Farmer, it occurs to me that the authors whose stories are part of my memories of early days, and who got to make impressions on me when I was much more malleable–and thus had a greater effect on my life–are a limited resource. And one that will only run out faster… Read more →
