Jay Lake: Writer

[links] Link salad says Happy Birthday to me

Coming Soon: “Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction” — A project of which I was a part. I provided the chapter on steampunk. Unfortunately, I did not inquire as to the stable of my co-authors.

Jay Lake and Austin Sirkin in Conversation — Locus with a podcast recorded last spring at ICFA. We talk steampunk, mostly.

We are here to protect you. We are here to protect you from the terrible secret of Seanans. — seanan_mcguire on (among other things) our current WIP collaboration.

Think Similar — Rhetoricians call switching a word from one part of speech to another “anthimeria”. (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Book Domino Chain World Record — Oh, this is so cute. (Thanks to threeoutside.)

There Are Whales Alive Today Who Were Born Before Moby Dick Was Written — (Thanks to threeoutside.)

On Being an Octopus — Diving Deep in Search of the Human Mind. (Thanks to AH.)

Fresh-Squeezed: 1951 — Mmm. Oranges.

What We Think Martians Look Like: Photos — Some classic images.

New Science of Cosmography Reveals 3-D Map of the Local Universe

Chester E. McDuffee’s patented diving suit (1911) — Wow. And a cool site it’s on, too. (Thanks to David E. Vincent.)

First “Small Modular” Nuclear Reactors Planned for Tennessee

Helicopter Operated By Pure Mind Control

Invisibility ‘time cloak’ developed

Can “Infinite Variation” Be Mass-Produced Using 3-D Printing? — Shapeways looks to software to bring down production costs and time to market in its 3-D printing factory in New York City.

Rep. Marc Veasey condemns racist remarks by Dallas Republican activist — “I’m going to be real honest with you, the Republican Party doesn’t want black people to vote if they’re going to vote 9-to-1 for Democrats,” [Tea Party Republican] Ken Emanuelson said. Are you proud of your Republican Party?

IMF ‘to admit mistakes’ in handling Greek debt crisis and bailout — Wait? What? Austerity isn’t the answer to everything? Clearly we need more tax cuts!

“Yes Virginia, There Are Death Panels”: Limbaugh Exploits Child Transplant Patient To Revive Obamacare Myth — Because conservatives lie. Constantly and knowingly. That’s what happens when truth and reality aren’t ever on your side.

Obama says GOP obstruction of nominations is ‘unprecedented.’ What if he’s right? — Republicans deny that their obstructionism is unprecedented. As it happens, though, there is a set of actual facts we can look at to try to determine who is right.

QotD?: When is your birthday?

6/6/2013
Writing time yesterday: 2.25 hours (WRPA editing and revising “Hook Agonistes”)
Hours slept: 6.75 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.0 hours (feet hurt)
Weight: n/a (traveling)
Number of FEMA troops on my block creating tornados for political distraction: 0
Currently reading: Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Tags: audio, Books, Cool, economy, Funny, healthcare, Language, Links, Mars, nature, Personal, Photos, podcasts, Politics, Process, race, Science, stories, Tech, Videos, weird, Writing

Posted: 3:06 am Thu June 06 2013 | Comments(3) |

[writing] What I have been doing just lately

Continuing to work as I can. Currently dividing my time between two projects. One is editing duties for METAtropolis: Green Space, which I am interchanging with the mighty kenscholes. That is fun and interesting, as editing almost always is. Because METAtropolis is a shared world, there are continuity issues to be dealt with. Because it is a loosely shared world (the only stories with tight overlap are mine and Ken’s), those continuity issues are subtle and fine-grained. It’s a joy to work with that writing crew.

I am also doing some audio annotation for the Audible.com edition of Trial of Flowers. My egregiously idiosyncratic vocabulary is jumping out and biting me in the butt on this one. In effect, I’m about halfway to a Lexicon Flora, should anyone ever feel the need for such. I am also filled with admiration for the poor narrator who has to take this ornate little beast on. Revisiting this work from some years ago has been fascinating in its own right. Perhaps its an exercise we authors should engage in more often.

Tags: audio, Books, META3, Process, Trial, Writing

Posted: 5:50 am Sat May 04 2013 | Comments(6) |

[cancer] Field notes from Cancerland, San Antonio edition

Podcast

Yesterday, Mendelspod put up a 20+ minute podcast interview with me and Dad about cancer and the Whole Genome Sequencing. We listened to it in the car on the way down from Austin. I had a terrible cold the day we recorded it, and don’t sound like myself at all. Still, my comments were clear and cogent for the most part. Worth a listen if you’re following along here for the cancer news.

Dreams

Had a difficult dream last night which was a somewhat metaphorical review of the thoughts I’ve been having lately about the likely imminent wind down of both my writing career and my life as a whole. Specifically, the casting off of things both virtual and real. That intersects with my discussions with @lynnemthomas about the archiving process and how my mortality inflects that. Plus a lot of difficult thoughts about this week’s cancer news were creeping in.

Time

I am running out of time. If the cancer news is as seems likely, I’ll be back in full treatment before the end of May. That means by the end of June or so, I’ll probably never leave my house again in my life except for medical points and a few very constrained social engagements. This also means that I have around two months of productive writing time left in my entire life. There is nothing surprising about this, given the trajectory we’ve been on since the January discovery of all those additional tumors during surgery, but it’s still horrifying, depressing and disappointing. I have a lot more to say about this, but my thoughts haven’t coalesced coherently yet. Plus we’re still shooting in the dark until the May 7th scan.

Being Out in the World in My Writer Persona

Per the above, my opportunities to infest the wider world with my writer persona are likely very limited. I’m terribly pleased to be here at Paradise Lost, and to be going to the Nebula Awards Weekend, but I’m also having a sad and greedy end of the party feeling. My sense of impending loss is huge right now, but I’m also savoring every minute I can of this.

Tags: audio, Awards, Cancer, Conventions, events, health, Personal, podcasts, Texas, Writing

Posted: 6:27 am Fri April 12 2013 | Comments(16) |

[links] Link salad hangs out in San Antonio

Message from a Patient: Whole Genome Sequencing Not Clinical Yet — Mendelspod interviews me and Dad in a podcast.

Surgery mid-birth saved baby Lake — Wait, what? (Via David Goldman.)

After Chemo — Research into how the brain suffers as a result of chemotherapy is revealing potential avenues for ameliorating cognitive decline.

Beatles 3000 — A millennial retrospective. Hahaha. (Via scarlettina.)

Bingham Landslide — Wow.

NASA Mars Orbiter Images May Show 1971 Soviet Lander

Hacking an Airplane With Only an Android Phone — Hoo boy.

The Hard Truth about Economic Inequality that Both the Left and Right Ignore

Gitmo Defense Lawyers Say Somebody Has Been Accessing Their Emails — Because we Americans are the highly principled defenders of freedom and the rule of law.

In the story of Noah, climate change is humans’ fault — Slacktivist Fred Clark with a progressive religious perspective on the latest conservative idiocy.

Fox’s Disability Insurance Fraud “Shocker” Falls Flat — The conservative view of social programs as some kind of cornucopia of largesse is just bizarre, not to mention profoundly counterfactual.

QotD?: Been to the Riverwalk?

4/12/2013
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (1,500 words on Original Destiny, Manifest Sin), 1.0 hour of editing work on METAtroplis: Green Space)
Hours slept: 6.5 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 0.0 (away from home)
Number of FEMA troops on my block enforcing Agenda 21 by closing down golf courses: 0
Currently reading: Jingo by Terry Pratchett

Tags: audio, Cancer, Christianists, climate, Cool, economy, Funny, guns, health, healthcare, law, Links, Mars, music, Personal, Photos, podcasts, Politics, Religion, Science, Videos, weird

Posted: 6:08 am Fri April 12 2013 | Comments(5) |

[links] Link salad hears the homicidal bitchin’ that goes down in every kitchen

Top 10 SF Signal Podcasts for 2012 — I immodestly note that I am part of the number one podcast.

The Hobbit: 48 and 24 Frames Per Second — Ben Peek is interesting.

Mazes & Monsters and the BADD old days: I’m collecting stories of the backlash against Dungeons & Dragons — Slacktivist Fred Clark brings back some memories. Though I never encountered anti-RPG panic.

There still remain many agenda — Language Log with a squib for the “data are plural” crowd.

It’s All Uphill From Here: The Earth at Perihelion

Lucy climbed trees as well as walked

Fence Phone — More weirdness from BLDG BLOG on the subject of oddball telecommunications. There are several other fascinating pieces over there in this same vein. (And did the fence phone have a maps app?)

Maps the key mobile battle

Ten states raise minimum wage; Is your state one of them? — It’s nice to see some states, including my own, doing the right thing. The perennial conservative hysteria over minimum wage hikes is as baseless as virtually every other target of conservative hysteria, from racial integration to gay marriage. But of course, there is never any post facto accountability for grandstanding conservative opposition to such basic moral issues as integration, marriage equality, or fair pay for fair work.

House GOP kills Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill. GOP to Sandy victims: Drop Dead. — So all those proud “Real American” GOPers from tornado and flood prone farm states are expecting precisely what the next time Mother Nature nails their home turf? This isn’t how a nation works, rather, this is how a dying political party spreads its toxicity.

?otD: Who will serve and who will eat?

1/2/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo brain)
Hours slept: 3.5 hours (badly interrupted)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (30 minutes on the stationary bike)
Weight: 213.4
Number of FEMA troops on my block forcing small businesses to raise wages: 0
Currently reading: The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks

Tags: audio, economy, games, Language, Links, Movies, nature, Personal, podcasts, Politics, Science, Tech, weird

Posted: 6:19 am Wed January 02 2013 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad heads for the infusion center

SF Squeecast Episode 16: Live from Chicon: Keeping It Classy on the Eve of a Hugo Award — In which I make a guest appearance, and tell Lynn Flewelling’s bear joke on live mic.

A Box of Crayons for the iPad — (Thanks to Dad.)

Some of the science behind procrastination (and tips on how to manage it) — I couldn’t find time to read this article.

Study finds humanity’s origins clouded by isolation and interbreeding — Oldest distinct population identified. But humans may never get specific site of origin.

Designing a Sustainable Interstellar Worldship

What would it mean if Jesus had been married? — Slacktivist Fred Clark on the current stirrings in religious circles.

MoFem 101: Nauvoo Versus Utah Polygamy — Some inside baseball on Mormon polygamy history. I find this oddly fascinating.

Proud Americans, Be Who You Are — Being gay and political. (Snurched from Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

“We’re Not Dead,” Say Texas Voters Informed They Were Dead — That conservative need to prevent voter fraud? Working out masterfully well.

Bill O’Reilly’s Sandra Fluke Obsession — Anatomy of yet another of the endless baldfaced conservative lies.

Final Stretch Marks Shift in Money Race — What’s wrong with this headline?

GOP Sen. says he will cut scientific funding because scientists read too much — Because, uh. I got nothing. The conservative stupid outpaces even my sarcasm sometimes.

Mitt Romney: I’m for the ’100 percent’ — Amazing, the things conservatives say when they realize people are listening. Quite different from when they feel free to truly speak their minds.

Ann Romney to critics: “Stop it. This is hard” — Yes, I warmly recall when Ann Romney leapt to the defense of Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama as the media savaged them and their husbands. Her sterling intellectual consistency is of a piece with that of conservatives as a whole.

Worse Than Bush — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on the Romney candidacy. He has more interesting stuff here. N.B. I like reading Larison because he critiques the conservative movement from the inside. Gives me a more rounded view of some of the issues that are very hot for me. I don’t actually agree with very many of his positions, but I find him fascinating to read.

?otD: Drip drip?

9/21/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (2,300 new words on a Green novelette)
Body movement: 60 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 5.0 (fitful)
Weight: 235.6
Currently reading: Heartland by Mark Teppo

Tags: audio, Awards, Conventions, Cool, Culture, gay, gender, iPad, Links, media, Personal, podcasts, Politics, Religion, Science, sex, Tech

Posted: 7:50 am Fri September 21 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad believes that Green is more than a color

The SF Signal Podcast (Episode 151): Interview with Author Jay Lake — They interviewed me at Worldcon.

Jay Lake, “Hnacie pero” (2007) — A review of Mainspring. I’m not sure of the language. Romanian or Hungarian, possibly.

With a Nasal Drawl — A discussion about writing about language. (Found at Language Log.)

Sturgeon’s Law — Hahahaha! (Snurched from @jackwilliambell.)

Vintage Tin Toys

Elephant, Ranger Protections Endorsed—But Do They Have Teeth? — Warning, triggery photographs.

Woolly Mammoth Tracks Prove Beasts Once Roamed Oregon

We’ll have to get used to this idea — Roger Ebert with a somewhat lateral take on vegetarianism.

The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife and Sacred History from Judaism to Islam

Some Religious Leaders See a Threat as Europe Grows More Secular — I can only see deprivileging religion as a good thing, personally. Not delegitimization, just deprivileging.

Researchers track evolution through snapshots of 40,000 generations — The experiment, bane of Conservapedians, traces evolution to the DNA level.

Looking down on the snow of Kilimanjaro — The ice is receding, and it’s expected the volcano will be ice-free in as little as ten years. While the recession has been going on for a century now, the past couple of decades have seen phenomenal acceleration in ice loss. It’s amazing, the lengths liberals will go to to perpetrate their global warming scam. Even to removing tons of snow from an African volcano. Good thing we have the GOP to tell us the truth, despite our lying eyes.

Chick-fil-A to stop giving money to ‘anti-gay organizations,’ according to reports — I am rather suspicious of this story, especially given the transparently disingenuous statement from the company at the end of the article, but I am cautiously optimistic.

A Brief Black Liberal Rant — Ta-Nehisi Coates is, as usual, interesting.

One More Reason to Distrust Romney — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on R. Money’s ongoing campaign woes.

Mitt Romney pulled up from his bootstraps: ‘I have inherited nothing.’ — The lack of self-awareness inherent in privilege is stunning.

What Mitt Romney Doesn’t Get About Responsibility — A devastating critique of the idiocy of the worldview from Romney’s money tower.

Romney Taking Hits in Republican Party as Polls Show Obama Edge — WHat astonishes me is that through my political lifetime, the GOP have been absolute masters at messaging and party discipline. Did the Bush administration wreck the Republican party as badly as it wrecked the country as a whole?

Mitt Romney says half of Americans are immoral parasites who think they’re ‘victims’ — Slacktivist Fred Clark with a terrific rundown of solid links on Romney’s inadvertent moment of conservative honesty.

Mitt is down; out looms next — The country can only hope.

?otD: Would you go to Kalimpura?

9/20/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (2,000 new words on a Green novelette)
Body movement: 60 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 5.0 (fitful)
Weight: 238.2
Currently reading: Heartland by Mark Teppo

Tags: audio, Books, climate, Cool, Culture, economy, Food, Funny, gay, history, Language, Links, Mainspring, Oregon, Personal, podcasts, Politics, Process, race, Religion, reviews, Science, Writing

Posted: 5:40 am Thu September 20 2012 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad is guaranteed

METAtropolis: Cascadia — An audio review.

Professional Standards — What it takes (or took in 1934) to make it in the news business. (Via Marta Murvosh.)

Five Reasons Cord-Cutting May Not Be For You — Are you ready to ditch cable? It’s not for everyone–yet. I ditched cable tv back in 1994, haven’t regretted it yet.

Spreepark Berlin Sits Abandoned 11 Years After Closing — (Thanks to mlerules.)

Love To Hate Cilantro? It’s In Your Genes And Maybe, In Your Head — (Via garyomaha.)

A First: Organs Tailor-Made With Body’s Own Cells

Atomic bond types discernible in single-molecule images

Bee study lifts lid on hive habits — Experiments on division of labour among honeybees reveal why some worker bees are foragers while others nurse their queens.

World’s Shiniest Fruit — Weird. (Via willyumtx.)

A Solar Filament Erupts — Another awesome APOD image.

From dry rivers to dead deer, drought’s impact felt everywhere — No climate issues here. Move along, citizen.

The staggering decline of sea ice at the frontline of climate change — Scientists on board Greenpeace’s vessel exploring the minimum extent of the ice cap are shocked at the speed of the melt. Remember, kids, climate change is a liberal conspiracy. Pay no attention to the facts on the ground, your ideology will always be correct.

He Said, She Said, and the Truth — How come the wrong end of fact checking almost always seems to be the conservative view? You know, the one Your Liberal Media always presents as part of fair, balanced reporting.

Canadian the only illegal alien caught in U.S. fake-voter dragnet — [A]fter months of searching, only one alien falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen has been caught, charged and convicted in Florida. And this is why Republicans the nation wide are eager to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of likely Democratic voters. To protect the sanctity of the polls from a single rogue Canadian! No partisan interest here, no sir. (Snurched from the always excellent Lowering the Bar.)

Top Romney Staffer Denies Campaign Disarray

U.S. state officials in stealth mode on health exchanges — Because GOPers at the state level are just as destructive as the national party. (Via threeoutside.)

Thank You, Paul Ryan — Thanks to Ryan’s very explicit advocacy of scrapping public Medicare in favor of vouchers, seniors are returning to their natural Democratic home. The transparently bogus effort of the Romney-Ryan ticket to walk back Ryan’s voucher proposal — and alter it into a plan where seniors get to choose traditional public Medicare or vouchers — only reinforces the voter perception of Romney as someone who keeps changing his story.

Romney enters critical phase, will talk up economic plan — Because those very same policies worked out so well under Dubya.

?otD: Special for you today only? Or every day?

9/17/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (day off)
Body movement: 60 minute urban walk
Hours slept: 7.75 (fitful)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: Heartland by Mark Teppo

Tags: audio, Books, Canada, climate, Cool, Culture, Food, healthcare, Language, Links, media, nature, Personal, Photos, Politics, reviews, Science, weird

Posted: 5:31 am Mon September 17 2012 | Comments(2) |

[links] Link salad sings “Hold me closer, Tony Danza”

SkiffyandFanty Episode 112 — An Interview w/ Jay Lake — A podcast interview with me, by Skiffy and Fanty. Covers the release of the Endurance trade paperback edition, as well as a fair amount of discussion of my cancer.

2012 Hugo voting analysis — Apparently I missed the Best Novelette ballot by one vote. Sigh.

How copyright enforcement robots killed the Hugo Awards — Sigh.

Beyond the Matrix — The Wachowskis travel to even more mind-bending realms.

Couple discover 33ft deep hole built in middle ages beneath their living room after spotting bump in the floor

Tracking a Subtle Scent, a Dog May Help Save the Whales — (Via Dad.)

Tigers change behavior to live near people — Tigers don’t necessarily need huge dedicated reserves, say scientists, but can accommodate themselves to patterns of human activity by becoming more nocturnal.

Researchers ponder what’s next in volcanic Yellowstone — Caldera isn’t ready to erupt, but we might have little warning when it is. If this doesn’t concern you, you’re not paying attention.

Spacecraft to starship? 35 years after launch, Voyager 1 is barreling toward the stars

Aliens at the Vatican! A History of the Vatican Meteorite Collection — Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J., the Vatican Astronomer, will be speaking at the Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory fundraiser on Saturday, September 15th. Check it out and support an important Northwest science lab.

Smoke and mirrors — ‘Agnotology’, the art of spreading doubt (as pioneered by Big Tobacco), distorts the scepticism of research to obscure the truth. See also evolution denial, climate change denial, supply side economics, and very nearly every other core conservative belief. (Via Scrivner’s Error.)

Climate report: “Almost no chance” of less than 3½°F (2°C) rise; 50-50 chance of 5½°F (3°C); headed for 9°F — Darn that liberal bias in reality. Good thing conservatives aren’t part of the reality-based community.

Holder Announces Impunity for Torture-Homicides — (Thanks to danjite.)

QOTD: Gloria Borger — France? Really? This is what makes it so hard to respect so many of the most hardcore American conservatives — their endless self-serving hypocrisy.

As Republican convention emphasizes diversity, racial incidents intrude — Gee, the party that’s having trouble because they can’t generate enough angry white guys isn’t communicating well across racial lines? No one could have predicted this!

Romney & Bush Disappearance — Hahahahahah.

The Political Overconfidence of Republican Hard-liners

?otD: Who’s the boss?

9/4/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (running on Con time)
Body movement: 60 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 6.0 (interrupted)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: Heartland by Mark Teppo

Tags: audio, Awards, climate, Conventions, Cool, Funny, interviews, Iraq, Links, Movies, nature, Personal, podcasts, Politics, Portland, race, Science

Posted: 3:55 am Tue September 04 2012 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad comes home from Mars

The SF Signal Podcast (Episode 141): Cherie Priest, Jay Lake, Gail Carriger, Paul Di Fillipo, Phillipa Ballantine and Tee Morris Talk Steampunk

The Rule of Names — Aliette de Bodard on the perils of cross-cultural naming. (Snurched from Cora Buhlert.)

Pop Tarts: Which flavor Reigns Supreme? — Jersey Girl in Portland with her own comments on the Pop-Tart issue. [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] See also The Pop Tarts World Store, courtesy of danjite.

First Driving Lesson — A video from yesterday’s Washington and Oregon coast ramble. Shot by me on my iPhone, produced by Waterloo Productions. Hahahah.

Howl’s Moving Castle in Shockingly Good Papercraft Form — This is pretty neat. (Thanks to willyumtx.)

Cats, whales and empty seats: The best nonhuman Twitter feeds

NASA rover Curiosity makes historic Mars landing, beams back photos — Just in case you somehow missed this…

SMBC on the gay force that holds the universe together — Hahaha. Especially check out the mouseover text.

Fred Phelps: Why it is not possible to believe that you ate Chick-fil-A because of ‘freedom of speech’ — Slacktivist Fred Clark is once again delightfully snarky.

Voting Rights and Reproductive Rights for Artificial Intelligences — ericjamesstone is both funny and interesting with a very SFnal question and accompanying thought experiment.

Rick Warren and the “Finer Points of Christology” — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on religion and the GOP. I generally have a lot of respect for what he has to say, but in this case, I think he gets it flat wrong in dismissing the theocratic underpinnings of the current Republican coalition on the basis of the McCain and Romney nominations. Probably because Larison’s own deeply religious perspective makes it difficult for him to acknowledge the depths to which the GOP has sunk in this respect.

?otD: Got Curiosity?

8/6/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (day off)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 5.0 (fitful)
Weight: 237.2
Currently reading: The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems by Henry Petroski

Tags: Art, audio, Child, Christianists, Cool, Food, Funny, gay, Links, Mars, Oregon, Personal, podcasts, Politics, Polls, Process, Religion, Science, Videos, weird

Posted: 5:17 am Mon August 06 2012 | Comments(0) |