[links] Link salad for a chilly hump day
Starship Sofa with, among many other good things, a podcast of my flash piece “A Conspiracy of Dentists”
The Fix reviews The Best of Abyss & Apex
Amazon Aims at Content Delivery — Interesting future state stuff.
APOD with a photo of the smiling heavens
Polar opposites — Some coverage of the possibly imminent (in geological terms) flipping of the Earth’s magnetic field. (Thanks to lt260.)
And for LJ readers, because flist display of my posts continues intermittently borked, something which I’m told wasn’t visible to everyone the first time:
The writing career meme
If you’ve missed recent link salads, believe me, they’ve been there. Try this.
?otD: I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
12/03/08
Body movement: 30 minutes on stationary bike
This morning’s weigh-in: 223.2
Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville
Tags: audio, Cool, Links, lj, Personal, reviews, Science, stories
Posted: 5:40 am Wed December 03 2008 | Comments(0) |
[personal] Getting myself neutered
Now it can be told…
(Amusing stuff, at least in my opinion, but under a cut for medical TMI and reader mercy) Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Funny, health, Personal, Photos
Posted: 9:09 pm Tue December 02 2008 | Comments(4) |
[personal] Living inside my body
Interrupting Gelastic Jew has an interesting post today on life choices, body image and the whole diet/exercise thing. By curious coincidence, I dropped below 220 pounds this morning for the first time in over 20 years. That’s 65 pounds lost this year, officially, and eight inches dropped from my waistline in that same process.
I’m sympathetic to her comments about obsessiveness and choice. And I don’t think I’m obsessive about this stuff myself. (This from the guy who can take a two and a half hour walk at 3 am…) In my case, I got scared straight about the overall state of my health through my excellent cancer adventures last spring. Then I leveraged some metabolic changes arising from my colorectal surgery — specifically, as I seem to have utterly reset my sleep clock, I took the two hours gained in my life every day and dedicated a significant portion of it to exercise. Likewise I’ve maintained some core dietary changes initially forced on me for medical reasons.
Was that a sort of get-out-of-jail-free card? Yes, if you can bring yourself to think of cancer that way. I didn’t have to break and reform a set of habits. They were broken and reformed for me. Where my discipline has been applied is in not simply resetting to my pre-cancer lifestyle. I haven’t missed a day of exercise since I first crept back to the stationary bike for five minutes one morning last July. (The one exception is travel days, where I figure I take enough steps hiking through airports to make up for it.)
I don’t think I’ve become an evangelist for lifestyle change, except possibly by example. I certainly don’t have a case of the one-true-way-ism to which Interrupting Gelastic Jew refers. In fact, quite the opposite — I wouldn’t recommend my path to anyone. On the other hand, I quite like where it has taken me. Living well may be the best revenge, but it’s also the best argument, at least in this context.
And living inside my body is the only way to live.
Tags: Cancer, health, Personal
Posted: 5:33 am Tue December 02 2008 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad is woozy with the heady smell of December
Wondermark on Rudolph as R. Clement Moore fanfic
Asher at The Guru Handbook on grading and concurrency — I’m more interested in the grading model Asher cites as applied to writers, both in a workshop environment and as a critical tool in the published world. There certainly are books and stories which can be identified as “first wave” and “second wave” — I’m not so sure if the reviewer step is better reflected in the critical/critiquing apparatus or in another layer of writing.
My new word for the day: Abugida — Picked it up while reading this fascinating piece on textual analysis being used to investigate the Mumbai terrorist attacks. (Specifically, the comments section, which is very good on this post.) From an auctorial perspective, the whole thing is worth reading if you write fiction about multilingual societies.
Fuel-cell powered devices getting closer — Mmm. Multiday batteries.
Injuries and Deaths Due to Firearms in the Home — For every time a gun in the home was used in a self-defense or legally justifiable shooting, there were four unintentional shootings, seven criminal assaults or homicides, and 11 attempted or completed suicides. (Thanks to swan_tower.)
From my cell I scent the reeking soul of US justice — Conrad Black writes from prison. (Thanks to danjite.)
Obama Birth Certificate Rears Its Head - Again — Mmm. I can smell the bipartisanship from all the way over here. Because there’s nothing Republicans love more than a good, enraging lie. Keeps the base energized, donchaknow. This is like Whitewater, it will never go away. (Thanks to lt260.)
Jones at NSC; Even knows French (Eat your Heart out Tom DeLay) — I’m posting this one mostly for the headline, which I find hilarious, but it’s also a discussion of Obama’s new National Security Advisor.
This Modern World with a brief (and sadly fictional) history of the past eight years
?otD: Why oh, why oh, why oh; did I ever leave Ohio?
12/02/08
Body movement: 30 minutes on stationary bike
This morning’s weigh-in: 220.8
Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville
Tags: Funny, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Science, Writing
Posted: 5:24 am Tue December 02 2008 | Comments(0) |
[personal] …and a wee bit o’ miscellaneous updatery
One more squib before I launch into my work day. This weekend, the_child decided my house wasn’t writerly enough. To effect the change she believes in, my daughter rearranged my living room and created an attractive and functional promotional display so that visitors to the house are greeted with an overview of my work as a writer. Photographs later, when time permits. She did a lovely job, and even set out some of my business cards. Kid’s a natural born publicist, I tell you.
In other news, I’ll be out for a minor medical procedure later this morning. Recovery time is expected to be nil — this is something I can drive myself home from — but if I’m feeling unexpectedly wonky this afternoon, there may be less blogging than my hypergraphic norm.
Tags: Child, Funny, health, Personal
Posted: 7:00 am Mon December 01 2008 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad for a new workweek
Holiday weekend reacharound, for those of you who weren’t online much:
Here at this blog, we read Herman Melville so you don’t have to. [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
A writerly career meme: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
More wit and wisdom of the_child: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
Wisdom of Fred: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
Plus the usual assorted bill of fare:
Lego safe — Um… (Thanks to willyumtx.)
Next Year In Birobidzhan? Stalin’s Siberian Zion — Strange Maps with a very odd bit of Jewish history.
Climate change juggernaut on the horizon, UN talks told — More liberal balderdash from the world scientific community and the pinko climate itself. Thank God we have the Republican party and its talk radio surrogates to keep us politically insulated from the inconvenience of reality.
A Handpicked Team for a Foreign Policy Shift — The New York Times on Obama’s foreign policy and national security team. …the United States has more members of military marching bands than foreign service officers. Because that’s what the War on Terror demands! The GOP, keeping you safer with clarinets.
The GOP’s McCarthy gene — Think Goldwater is the father of conservatism? Think again. A fairly cogent explanation of the profound cognitive dissonance between the GOP’s idealistic self-image and the party’s vicious behaviors. (Hat tip to Talking Points Memo.)
Juan Cole on Pakistani Reaganism — A very illuminating precis on the history of radical Islam in South Asia, and how much the current issues with the Taliban owe their roots to Reagan’s anti-Communist policies. Not news to most reality-based readers, but very well-explained. (Facts not valid for FOX News viewers.)
?otD: Who let the dogs out?
12/01/08
Body movement: 30 minutes on stationary bike
This morning’s weigh-in: 221.4
Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville
Tags: Child, Cool, Culture, Funny, Links, Memes, Personal, Politics, Process, Science, Writing
Posted: 6:12 am Mon December 01 2008 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad, culture edition
An Apollo 15 Panorama from APOD — In case you had moonscapes on the brain today.
Fluegar — A car from car heaven. :: wants :: (Thanks to danjite.)
Rockets help build bridge higher than the Empire State Building — Um, wow. (Thanks to lt260.)
Poodles — Wrong. Just wrong. (Thanks to willyumtx.)
?otD: Why are you fixing a hole for the rain to come in?
11/30/08
Body movement: 85 minute suburban walk
This morning’s weigh-in: 221.6
Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville
Tags: Cool, Culture, Links, Personal, Science, weird
Posted: 8:09 am Sun November 30 2008 | Comments(1) |
[process] A writerly meme
A writerly meme, gleaned from a locked post elsewhere but provided here unlocked. In case you thought this was a quick or easy career path…
- Age when I decided I wanted to be a writer: 14
- Age when I got my hands on a typewriter and taught myself to use it: 14
- Age when I wrote my first short story: 14
- Age when I wrote my first novel: 30
- Novels written between age 30 and age 39: 4
- Age when I first submitted a short story to a magazine: 27
- Number of rejections prior to first story sale: About 150
- Lifetime number of rejections: Over 1,100
- Age when I sold my first short story: 37
- Age when I wrote a saleable novel: 39
- Age when I sold that novel: 40
- Novels written since age 40: 8
- Age when a story was first shortlisted for the Hugo award: 39
- Age when I won the Campbell award: 40
- Age now: 44
- Age when the money coming in exceeded my statuory employment: not yet
- Number of books sold: 8 (novels), 2 (single title novellas), 5 (short story collections), 12 (anthologies edited or co-edited)
- Number of short stories sold: about 240
- Number of titles in print: 4 (novels), 4 (short story collections), 10 (anthologies)
- Number of titles in production or pre-production: 4 (novels), 2 (single title novellas), 1 (short story collection), 2 (anthologies)
Tags: Personal, Process, Writing
Posted: 8:05 am Sun November 30 2008 | Comments(5) |
[links] Link salad needs to finish a novelette
Atomic Tarantula — Some very cool sf-themed wear.
Autoportraits — Finding expression in unlikely places. This is fairly amusing.
Honeywell’s Kitchen Computer remembered — A idea whose time never came, apparently. Still, there’s something wistful about this. (Thanks to danjite.)
Baconed yams — One of my favorite recipes in quite a while, courtesy of cthulhie, whom I don’t actually know, AFAIK. Worth the read just for the cooking instructions. Mmmm, bacon.
20 things to do with a haggis — Unintentional (I think) multicultural humor from the online archives of The Times. (Thanks to Scrivener’s Error.)
Poll riots erupt in Nigerian city — I spent my freshman year of high school (1978-1979) at a missionary boarding school in this city. (Thanks to my brother.)
?otD: Do you have Prince Albert in a can?
11/29/08
Body movement: 2 hour, 35 minute suburban walk
[Important safety tip: do not wear reading glasses for extended trail walking in the dark]
This morning’s weigh-in: 222.4
Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville
Tags: Cool, Culture, Food, Funny, Links, Personal, Photos, Tech
Posted: 10:58 am Sat November 29 2008 | Comments(0) |
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