Years ago I read through Philip José Farmer‘s Riverworld books. Those of you who have read them will recall that Richard BurtonWikipedia entry (along with lots of other historical personages) played a pretty big role in the series. One of the indirect results of my doing that reading was that I was driven to find a copy of Burton‘s “Kasîdah“,… Read more →
Month: June 2006
“And he sang only one song”
UPDATE: MP3 links no longer valid. To celebrate how much Danny’s new CD is just what I needed, I wanted to post some MP3s. However, instead of posting some tunes off of Danny’s new album, which you should just go buy for yourselves, I shall instead post a few of the tunes that Danny used to cover during his live… Read more →
“It’s not the end of the world, just yet”
You know what the exact cure for what was ailing me earlier today is? The new Danny Michel CD. I wasn’t expecting to have it today–today is the official release date, but I didn’t expect that to matter for getting it in Halifax (I know Danny is signed with some part of the Universal music empire now, but… ), and… Read more →
“I gave and gave till I gave up…”
I have had the kind of day where… well… hm. Let me put it this way: if you are in a number of really frustrating conference calls over the day, and you find yourself putting your phone on mute so that you can take a hammer and smash it into your desk over and over while screaming “MISTER SMASHY! MISTER… Read more →
Holy @#$%
It’s a truism in Canada that socialised medicine is just better than the American system, except among rabid neocons. (Actually the truism is a bit more nuanced, but certainly the perception is that the average person is much better off here…) Every once in a while you hear a story about some family in the U.S. without insurance that are… Read more →
Work Less Party
It seems that B.C. has a political party that probably has In Praise Of Idleness as part of their required reading. I wonder why they haven’t taken off–it seems like a pretty big no-brainer for most people to be in favour of a shorter work week, doesn’t it? Policy – Work Less Party Unemployment today is now double what it… Read more →
The social relations of business
Gwenda points to an interesting discussion at Asimov’s message board. Apparently the magazine (or rather, the managing editor) had purchased a story from Jim Grimsley (author of the nifty book The Ordinary, and a bunch of other stuff I haven’t read yet), and the owners of the magazine ordered the story killed. As you can imagine, this has ruffled some… Read more →
Specter’s compromised.
Specter’s compromise: “You can have everything you wanted, Emporer Bush, sir.” Specter Offers Compromise on NSA Surveillance The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has proposed legislation that would give President Bush the option of seeking a warrant from a special court for an electronic surveillance program such as the one being conducted by the National Security Agency. […] Another… Read more →
Quickies
Darwin strikes again: Kung fu fan tries to stop train. I swear I am totally going to learn how to pronounce “Xianglongshibazhang!”, and I am totally going to yell it out whenever I see someone being unutterably stupid. Ha-ha: Roy Moore Loses. Not a judge anymore, not a governor either. Apparently even in Alabama there’s some people who can’t get… Read more →
I blame Linda Medley
Anyone got a spare $3,000,000 (Canadian) kicking around? See, I spent a lot of time tonight shopping for castles. It’s not insane–I need more shelf space for my books, and nothing says “lots of shelf space” like a nice castle; especially a castle with a tower. While I was doing that, I ran across this lovely manor house in Ireland.… Read more →
Art / Artist (continued)
I just want to quickly point out that there is some new stuff happening in the comments to my “Confusing The Art and the Artist” post, the “most linked to” post here so far. In particular, look for the lengthy response from John C. Wright, one of my examples in the post. His response is reasoned, and way more civil… Read more →
I promise to use this power only for good
It’s not quite exactly what I demanded of the universe, but the news that Golden Gryphon will be doing a lovely matched edition of Jeff Ford‘s three Well-Built City books is certainly welcome. New intros, etc. Also this will make it easier to assemble sets for gift-giving purposes. Now, if only the universe would pay closer attention when I specified… Read more →
Darwin wins
Hahahahahahahahahaha… Lioness in zoo kills man who invoked God A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal’s enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday. “The man shouted ‘God will save me, if he exists’, lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took… Read more →
250 million years == “strange aeons”??
When I read today about the discovery of a giant asteroid impact crater in Antarctica my immediate amused thought was that they had discovered the Plateau of Leng. Everybody in the world has read At The Mountain of Madness, right? (If not, what’s your excuse? The story is online. Besides, if you haven’t read it then how are you supposed… Read more →
06-6-6 Poker Variant
Here’s what I came up with for a “crazy game” on tonight’s theme for the poker game. You can download a one-page PDF of these rules as well. The Omen This game is played as 7-card stud, with the following variations: An extra hand is dealt, in addition to all player hands. This is referred to as “Damien’s hand”. (This… Read more →
