The short list is up now for The British Science Fiction Association Awards, and what a list it is. 9Tail Fox — Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Gollancz) Accelerando — Charles Stross (Orbit) (Free ebook edition) Air — Geoff Ryman (Gollancz) Learning the World — Ken MacLeod (Orbit) Living Next Door to the God of Love — Justina Robson (Macmillan) I’ve actually… Read more →
Month: January 2006
Hanging Around The House 3: Finishing The Basement
So, remember almost a year ago when I started the “Hanging Around The House” series? The idea was to take some quick digital snapshots to show things I have on the walls around the house, and give me an excuse to talk about them. I did a post on the things hanging in my office, and then another one on… Read more →
Top 5: First Blush
So, the question is “Ever get nostalgic for those first few blissful moments of being infatuated with someone? What are your top 5 songs for beginning a relationship, or looking back fondly thereon?” Let’s see… The first thing that pops into my head is the Oysterband tune “The Drunkard’s Waltz“. It’s the wild (and maybe just a little self-destructive) crazy… Read more →
Halifax’s Best Salesman
Everyone has to give in to web-crack every now and then, right? Ten Top Trivia Tips about Mike Drake! Mike Drake is the male seed of a flower blossom which has been gathered and treated by bees. In his entire life, Mike Drake will produce only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey. It’s bad luck to whistle near Mike… Read more →
A short pause
There may be a short break in service over the next week as I am about to enter a period of intense time commitment at work–I’m preparing materials to teach a whole team of new developers about our product, which has a pretty huge history and codebase, and then I’m teaching them. I really hate when I have to do… Read more →
North End Hangover Survival
I’m still laughing (on the inside, occasionally) about the Mad Russian’s advice for surviving vodka overconsumption, and it has me thinking about “hangover cures” and survival strategies. The days when I kept Ibuprofen on the headboard to prevent me having to make the painful choice between getting out of bed (and thus increasing the pain) or just enduring the pounding… Read more →
Conspicuous Consumption (this time it’s a double entendre)
So, I found out today (via Cool Hunting) about eCreamery where, among other things, you can design and order custom ice cream. It is ridiculously expensive–like $100 (US) for a gallon (perhaps easier to think of as $12.50 a pint), not including the FedEx price to get it to you (if you live in America). So even though I will… Read more →
The Darkening Ecliptic
I have no interest in commenting on the current book frauds. The blogosphere has both James Frey and JT Leroy covered. However, I do want to out Christopher Moore. Read more →
Conspicuous Consumption
My first thought on seeing this thing in one of the hundreds of mail order catalogues that comes to my house–I buy a lot of stuff online, which apparently means that my address ends up on a lot of “hot prospect” lists or something–was “damn, that’d be pretty cool”. My second thought, upon seeing the price of the thing ($17K… Read more →
I Am In The Wrong Country Next Week
Sigh. Blackwell on Charing Cross Road 18th January 7pm An evening with Michael Moorcock, in conversation with Alan Moore Tickets £6 normal, £4 for leeches on society. Buy them from the shop or call 0845 456 9876. This is totally going to be the Battle Of The Beards: versus Read more →
Wow
I would like to write about last night’s movie night. However, I’m not sure I can. I’m still laughing when I think about it. Let’s just say this: “The act of death has caused another life to be reborn. Together we share the wonder of human existence, and let there be no doubt that all of us are brothers. There… Read more →
Mad Russians
I think of vodka as a serious drinker’s drink. Not a “serious drinker” as in “someone who knows how to live the good life, and likes to drink”, but rather “serious drinker” as in “views the beverage as a delivery system for sought-after oblivion”. This is likely due to the number of people in the service industries I have known… Read more →
An Early Saturday Miscellany
OK, I love this BBC story about some crazy plans the American military have had for “non-lethal” weapons. The US military investigated building a “gay bomb”, which would make enemy soldiers “sexually irresistible” to each other, government papers say. Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath. Any guesses… Read more →
Scientists Say Smart Things, Too
I’ve referred to Professor Paul Myers, and his blog Pharyngula on more than one occasion here, and I’ve probably lifted uncredited links from him a few more times (“bad blogger, no Google juice for you”). I definitely read his stuff among the first things every day. Well, he’s the subject of the Science Friday interview today at Daily Kos. I… Read more →
SF authors say smart things (Part 3)
I could just as easily have titled this one “Looking forward to 2006”. Right now Bruce Sterling is having an online interactive discussion/seminar on the view for the year ahead over on The Well’s Inkwell.vue There are more than one places in the discussion already where Sterling is saying smart things, and the thread is still growing. Here’s an example:… Read more →
