I’m beginning to think I should have a separate MovableType category for works of literature mocked up with children’s toys, photographed, and put on-line. This link is from RJ, and features Gandalf’s greatest line that he never actually said: “Bilbo Baggins! You don’t look a day nearer your sell-by date!”
In my Khan research, I’m currently looking for Punjabi historical fiction. I tried What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin but found the feminism too jarring, out of place, and annoying to read the entire novel. I found an on-line translation of Sundri by Bhai Vir Singh at sikh.net. [Warning: the story is incomplete, though there’s more than enough there to get the idea.] As pulp, it’s a great read, but for historical flavor it leaves much to be desired.
I have a weakness for pulp fiction, especially Edgar Rice Burroughs. There’s something about all the fighting and damsels in distress and romantic misunderstandings that never fails to grab my attention. Yes, it’s cliched and repetitive and unrealistic, but I like it. Someday I hope to write my own.
These puppies have been piling up for a while, so to clear my desktop I’m going to do a link dump. There is neither order nor sense to the following list:
There’s a new sock in town: Tuvok. I can’t spend too much time watching the socks blog at each other -
I’m in the middle of voting for TNG stories in the ASC Awards. I’m only doing it because the there are so few of them. VOY should be starting soon, and I still need to vote in AAA.
Thanks to Leonieke, the links in my stylesheets have been fixed. You know you’re up too late geeking when you get your own URL wrong…six times.
In HMO news, Dr. Conveniently Located’s office called to tell me that they’re having mercy on me as a new cult member and giving me my retroactive referral to see my own ophthamologist. Next time, they warned me, I’ll have to use the cult ophthamologist. As if there’s going to be a next time! I don’t trust my company (or my patience) to last another year till my next appointment with Dr. Hot Stuff. I’ll be paying through my own nose then, but at least I’ll be free of the cult.
I’ve gotten on the wrong mailing list somehow. This week I got a free subscription to an academic journal, and a non-fiction book in the mail that looks like a review copy. All I can say is, I think you’ve mistaken me for someone whose opinion counts.
My annual geekfest, during which I upgrade a software package which I support, is now thankfully over except for the upgrade announcements. I’m still exhausted, though, so I have only one timely, warblogger link: Disarmament Clinic, from rec.humor.funny. That’s exactly how the whole Iraq thing sounds to me. I wonder if even the French believe otherwise.
1. What book is in your bathroom?
I’m actually a carry-in bathroom reader. Whatever I’m reading at the time accompanies me, generally into the tub.
2. What book is in your purse/backpack?
I carry magazines in my backpack - Analog, Scientific American, and Commentary.
3. What book is on your bedside table?
Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age, by Richard Rudgley. Eventually I will finish it and return it to Veronica.
4. What was the last book you lent someone?
I’ve already lent out Bellwether by Connie Willis.
5. What was the last book you lent out that someone brought back to you?
People tend to return Catherine Asaro, though I wish they wouldn’t.
6. What book do you have loaner copies of, solely for the purpose of foisting it on unsuspecting friends and relatives?
None, but I do buy LMB to give away, especially to my lovely sister Veronica.
MacOS X link of the day: iTerm, a cross between Chimera (sorry, Camino) and the Terminal app
I’ve seen this bit of writing advices a few times recently: one should not call it a tragic death because all death is tragic. The phrase is, presumably, redundant. Of course I disagree.
First of all, it’s a misuse of the word tragic. Tragedy refers to the fall of great men through a tragic flaw or an unstoppable force, or calamities more generally. The death of a 90-year-old man in his sleep can hardly be described as tragic. If a policeman guns down an escaping axe-murderer, perhaps the angels weep but we don’t.
Perhaps death is always sad, but it isn’t always unexpected enough to make it tragic. Sometimes it’s simply unfortunate. I don’t think of the Columbia accident as a tragedy - though it could turn out to be an instance of culpable negligence, it hasn’t yet. Someone who was against the space program in general might consider it proof of NASA’s hubris - a traditional tragic flaw - but I’m not against the space program.
NASA and its astronauts take a calculated risk. No one is forced into the profession by any means - they want to be up there despite the danger. The disaster, if there is one, is in the consequences. None of the Columbia’s crew would have wanted their deaths to bring a halt to the ISS program. They would have wanted us to go right back up there, even though sometimes the atmosphere wins.
I’ve gotten a couple of trackback hits lately and rearranged a few categories, so I should probably say a little something about the blog. I started blogging about science fiction at another location in September of 2001, and about fan fiction on blogspot in October of the same year. In December I moved the blogger page off blogspot, putting it up as my home page here at Jemima’s Trek.
In April of 2002 I installed MovableType here and imported all of my blogger entries. In June I imported the sci-fi entries, leaving me with an all-in-one blog. In October I upgraded to MT version 2.5 and implemented the styleswitcher.
This month I split up the GeekSpeak category into Mac and Web, renamed the Fandom category Meta, and tried to separate Meta (discussion of fandom) more cleanly from Fanfic (discussion of fanfic - the actual blogfic is in Ficlets), though that’s always a tough call to make. It’s not meta until somebody gets annoyed, and obviously that someone isn’t me. So here’s the rundown on all the categories:
Today is my lovely sister Veronica’s nth birthday, and she’s feeling blue. Literally. Here’s her story in her own words:
Last night I started to do my nails; I was shaking the bottle of nail polish
and tapping it against the palm of my hand when the bottle broke.
Did I mention that it was a full bottle, of blue polish, and of the
Jet-Set-Dries-in-1-minute variety?
So blue nail polish flies everywhere, on the couch, on my yummy sushi pajamas and
all over my hands (full bottle remember). So I run to the bathroom and throw
the whole mess in the sink (still blue by the way, can’t wait until the
landlord sees that!) and try and wash the polish off my hands. Some of it
comes off but unfortunately, being Jet-Set polish - it set.
I looked like I killed a Smurf.
It took me almost 2 hours, a full bottle of nail polish remover and most of
Joannie’s cottonballs to get it off my hands. And I missed a few spots - so
today, I have blue freckles.
Hope your night was better than mine!
Strangely enough, when I put Veronica’s name into the Smurf Name Generator, it returned “Killdozer Smurf.” How did they know? For even more smurfy fun, Smurf the Web!
