[Most Recent Entries] [Calendar View] [Friends View]
Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
| Monday, November 9th, 2009 | ||
|
orderofthestick [ ronebofh ] |
5:53p | |
| softerworldfeed | 5:05p | |
|
tinylegacies |
5:34p | busy busy I slept terribly last night. I had a hard time falling asleep and then I woke up at like 5:30 and was awake for about two hours before I fell back to sleep. So I got a late start today. However! I did manage to get a few loads of laundry done and I did 20 minutes on the Wii Fit and I currently have turkey rice soup simmering on the stove to use up the last of the leftovers from the turkey breast I made on Thursday. Roomie made rice yesterday for something else so I dumped that in there too. Added some celery and carrots and a bunch of herbs & spices. It smells awesome and I am staaaaaaarving. Still a week behind on Heroes. Oops. I will watch last week's ep and tonight's ep tomorrow. No new developments on the job front. |
|
gears_and_steam [ wintersweet ] |
2:24p | Wanderlust! http://curiousexpeditions.org/ http://atlasobscura.com/ Both of these should provide plenty of fodder for your adventures, either imaginary or real. |
| officialgaiman | 6:31p | For those who read this blog for the articles posted by Neil
 (Serena Altschul and some author in July, sitting on the trampoline after two days of interviews. None of which, oddly enough, were done on the trampoline.) Mr. Neil, I DVR'd yesterday's installment of Sunday Morning and after zipping through it back and forth multiple times cannot seem to find you, though the description indicated the correct episode. Was it bumped to next week? Have you been sucked into an alternate Neil-less universe? A concerned reader, Mary I'm afraid it was bumped by the Fort Hood Massacre. I checked: The profile CBS did of me is apparently still going out, probably some time in December, although no-one seems certain when. I was told that we could help ensure that it is broadcast (and possibly make it come out sooner than December) if CBS think people would actually like to see it. Which means that if you do want to see it, you can help the process along if you write or email CBS and (politely) tell them so: ADDRESS: CBS News Sunday Morning Box O (for Osgood) 524 West 57th St. New York, NY 10019 E-MAIL: sundays@cbsnews.com ... My friend Steve Brust (a fine and brilliant novelist) wrote to Miss Manners about his financial issues, and what having a Donate button on a website means. She replied to him here. There's a fascinating conversation going on about it at his website that I initially missed because I was in China... Most people disagree with Miss Manners. Even I disagree with Miss Manners, and I don't have a Donate button, or use the Amazon links to generate revenue, or have advertising or anything. (That's because Harper Collins set up this website, and they pay for our bandwidth and such. If they stopped, I'd have to think about ways to make it pay for itself.) ... Stephen King's UNDER THE DOME was one of my favourite books of the year so far. (R. Crumb's retelling of the Book of Genesis is my very favourite book of the year.) So I was pleased to be sent this link to a really wonderful Stephen King poem: (It's published by Playboy, which means that for some of you the site may be blocked.) There's also a Stephen King story in this week's New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/feature (Needless to say, I only read the New Yorker for the articles.) ... Dear Neil Gaiman, I ask for half-a-moment of your time (I would not presume to ask for more). This Spring 2010 I am teaching a Topics in Literature class on YOU at Winona State University (Eng 225: Neil Gaiman). Easy enough to select representative novel (American Gods), short stories (Fragile Things), children and YA (Graveyard Book), but here's the rub: I will likely only assign one Sandman graphic novel to students. I have been debating which is most representative, most worthy of inclusion, most amenable to class discussion and student scholarship. Then I thought I'd ask you. I know you suggest above that, for questions of this sort, we consider you a dead author, but I know you're not. When I came to a similar impasse about which of Ursula Le Guin's works to include in another class, she actually replied and offered her input. I extend the same offer to you: which of the Sandman volumes would you like to see on the syllabus? Thank you for your time, Nicholas Ozment, English Instructor WSU It's a hard one. I think if I were teaching I'd either go for Season of Mists or Fables and Reflections, because both of them have stuff to teach -- those nice chewy bits that people can like or dislike, argue with or discuss. I know a lot of teachers like to teach Dream Country because a) Midsummer Night's Dream won awards, and b) it's short and c) it has a script in the back. Your call. And good luck. ... I mentioned recently that there were some beautiful new Polish and Russian book covers for my books that I'd seen at signings, which got me thinking. The International Cover gallery on this website is incredibly out of date. It's at http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Works/Books/I And though I get a lot of foreign editions in, and will at some point head down to the basement and rummage around and scan some (this week's mail brought the two-volume Japanese edition of Anansi Boys, on the cover of which Fat Charlie is not only Very White, but also Very Thin, and the complex Chinese - ie. Taiwan and Hong Kong - edition of The Graveyard Book) I thought that blog readers, being, as you are, all over the world, might be a better resource for knowing where to look for foreign covers. So if you have, and want to scan in or link to foreign covers we do not have posted, or are a foreign publisher and would like your books up, there is now a submission page: http://www.neilgaiman.com/ (Also, Absolute Death was published this week. It is amazingly beautiful. Yes, I think they overpriced it too and no, pricing decisions at DC Comics are nothing to do with me. And the audio book of Good Omens will be released tomorrow. It's read by Martin Jarvis. People have asked why it is not read by me, and I have to explain that it is because if I read it I would just be doing my Martin Jarvis reading the William storiess impression, so better by far to have the real thing.) Was your basement finished when you purchased your home or did you have it finished for your basement library? If you finished it yourself, how difficult was it? Also, I thought I saw a dehumidifier in one of the Photosynth pictures. Do you need one because of the books? I'm asking because we have a full unfinished basement that we would like to have finished. We are running out of room for our books also. I don't think we don't have as many as you do though. :) Any other suggestions for such a project would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, C. No, when we got here the basement had a clay floor that puddled when it rained. We hired some nice builders and spent a lot of money finishing it, putting in drainage tiles, underfloor heating and all. There's a dehumidifier there in the summer and a humidifier in the winter, because after the first few years I noticed that binding glue and leather book covers were both cracking and flaking. There's now the equivalent of a large house in basement rooms beneath this house, filled with books and CDs and suchlike stuff. And finally, a few photos from the China trip, taken by Ian Ford (or in one case, on his camera). Ian's a travel guide who now lives in China who helped organise my travels, and came along with me for part of the journey.  Amanda and I in the silk clothes that my publisher had given us as a thank you for coming, and because they are terrific. Amanda, Ian Ford (in the pale top, also a gift from my publishers) and.. my publishers, SF World -- who will be publishing the mainland Chinese edition of The Graveyard Book very soon, and are very excited. I'm holding the Galaxy Award for this year, given to the foreign author most popular with Chinese reader-voters. This was my second year of winning it, so I have retired from the competition and said that they have to find a new favourite foreign author now.  |
|
james_nicoll |
2:55p | This seems like an auspicious date to post this Die Gedanken sind frei, wer kann sie erraten, sie fliegen vorbei wie nächtliche Schatten. Kein Mensch kann sie wissen, kein Jäger erschießen mit Pulver und Blei, Die Gedanken sind frei! Ich denke was ich will und was mich beglücket, doch alles in der Still', und wie es sich schicket. Mein Wunsch und Begehren kann niemand mir wehren, es bleibet dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei! Und sperrt man mich ein im finsteren Kerker, das alles sind rein vergebliche Werke. Denn meine Gedanken zerreißen die Schranken und Mauern entzwei, die Gedanken sind frei! Drum will ich auf immer den Sorgen absagen und will mich auch nimmer mit Grillen mehr plagen. Man kann ja im Herzen stets lachen und scherzen und denken dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei! Ich liebe den Wein, mein Mädchen vor allen, sie tut mir allein am besten gefallen. Ich sitz nicht alleine bei einem Glas Weine, mein Mädchen dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei! |
|
feath |
7:34p | Grandma called me today. She was doing pretty good - able to hold a conversation. She's gotten a picture from M, my middle child, of the new baby. I wondered what the kids b-day was, so grandma called M and asked. The info I got back was - gwyn is '3 months old'. right. so, my 4th grand kid was born sometime between july 8th through august 8th. further and persistant digging got that she has brown hair with red highlights. I've come to the conclusion I'll never hear from M again. i've come to terms with that. but I still cried at the proof of it. Grandma also mentioned Chicago. I asked if that's where M was living now. She said No. ... now, she does have pictures of M and her husband J, while they were on their honeymoon in chicago. But - well. she was having a 'good' communications day, but that was too much for me to figure out. And now I really need to stop thinking about it. Because it only guts me more when I do. Its over. M obviously wants to forget her past, and I'm a major componant of her past. She married into upper middle class, and her dirt poor roots are things to be burried. then to top it off, cleo hairs off from colo and disapears for two weeks without telling me. she's posting on her LJ with me blocked out. she's grown up and deserves her privacy. this on top of M just is a bit much for me right now. |
| makinglight | 7:08p | It was twenty years ago today It's evening now, here in Europe, so we're really two decades from that night. I can't watch even the announcement without crying. I never have, not since the first time I saw it live, and I don't know if I ever will. I'm not sure I want to; when I can watch sundered families be reunited with dry eyes I think I've lost some part of my humanity. The nuances of the fall of the Berlin Wall are being debated all over. Anniversaries are good times for awkward questions and complex analyses. Were the East Germans fairly treated in reunification? Has the victory of free-market capitalism been everything it promised, all things considered? How many half-truths and simplifications have buried the ambiguous complexity of that time? I have nothing useful to add to the discussion, except that I live in a Europe that could not have existed with the Wall intact, and I think it's a good place. I call it a night's work well done. I think I'll have a drink. It's a suitable matter for a toast. Anyone with me? |
|
james_nicoll |
2:02p | |
| scalzifeed | 5:54p | Me on Humor and Science Fiction
Whilst at Worldcon in Montreal this year, I was interviewed for a Canadian TV series called The Electric Playground on the subject of humor and science fiction. They’ve uploaded the interview to their Web site and it is here. Some irony for you: I make a crack about jocks in the interview, whilst wearing a football jersey (this one, in fact). But it does have my name on it, so that’s all right.       |
|
mindyklasky |
1:34p | Interview ... Up! I've answered about a jillion questions over at Bitten By Books, and I'm fielding gazillions more in comments. Stop by! Read the Q&A! Add more Qs! Comment now, for a chance to win valuable prizes! http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=12737 Mindy, busily typing away... |
| scalzifeed | 5:38p | On the Sending of Books to Athena
I’ve gotten e-mails from a number of YA authors asking whether it would be okay (and if it’s appropriate) to send copies of their books to Athena for her potential reading pleasure. So as to address this once and thereafter have something to point these folks to, here’s the ruling on that: 1. I certainly have no objection to people sending books to Athena. She’s an avid book reader, and likes all sorts of books. Send away. 2. However, if you (or your publisher/publicist/editor/whomever) is already sending me the book for consideration for The Big Idea or a mention on Whatever, you are also sending it to Athena, since I share books with her and she delights in coming into the office and looking to see what’s new. 3. So the best thing is probably to send it to me directly, via the process outlined in my Publicity Guidelines. Trust me, Athena will see it, too. I should also note that if you were wanting to send your work to Athena in the hopes of getting a review from her that goes up here, don’t get your hopes up, as her time is at a premium (school, friends, video games, reading) and she doesn’t spend a huge amount of it online. Moreover, I generally disapprove of people wanting to use my daughter as part of their publicity apparatus, however innocent these folks are in their intent. If Athena wants to saying something publicly about a book she enjoys, that’s one thing, but I’m not going to suggest it to her as something she should do. That said, if she likes what she reads, you might get a fan letter from her. I do encourage her to let authors know she liked a book.       |
| scalzifeed | 3:26p | Child’s Play Up for 2009
One of my favorite charities is back once again: Child’s Play, which helps distribute toys and video games to children’s hospitals all over the US and the world, is now open to receive your charitable donations. Go to the site, click on the map for a children’s hospital near you, and you’ll be taken to an Amazon wish list for that particular hospital, where you can buy toys and games that the hospital has chosen (For example, here’s the Amazon Wish List for the Children’s Medical Center in Dayton, which is the one I donated to). You can also or alternately donate cash to Child’s Play directly, via PayPal or through the mail. Child’s Play is run by the folks at Penny Arcade, who originally did it to make the point that video gamers aren’t disengaged shut-ins zapping things on phosphor screens, and to point out that video games themselves could make a difficult situation — being a kid in a hospital — slightly more bearable. In both cases the charity has overachieved, with Child’s Play bringing in literally millions in contributions since it began a few years ago. And they’ve made it amazingly easy to be involved. It’s a model of how charitable giving can and should work online. Check it out and if you are of a mind to, give.       |
|
james_nicoll |
11:15a | On the whole I would prefer adult-onset gardening disorder I keep having this urge to canoe up the Rideau Canal. The Erie Canal also looks vaguely intriguing but it's in the US. I wonder, would I drown first or be hacked up by some passing boat's prop? |
|
fangs_fur_fey [ michaeljasper ] |
10:53a | New Urban Fantasy comic up at Zuda Comics Hello all. I had some news I wanted to share in the November newsletter, but due to the timing (we couldn't announce it anywhere 'til 11/2), I couldn't share my news there. If it's okay with everyone, I'd love to share it here, especially for people interested in new ways of publishing and how editors deal with slush. First, the big news: a comic I created with artist Niki Smith, “In Maps and Legends,” is live on the Zuda Comics site! Zuda is the online comics line from DC Comics, the same folks who brought us Batman, Superman, the Sandman, Justice League, Wonder Woman, and countless other amazing characters and stories. Zuda offers an interesting twist on how comics are chosen to be published. ( Read more... ) |
|
james_nicoll |
10:31a | An interesting aside in a discussion of Project Daedelus Just over thirty years ago, British Interplanetary Society (BIS) members carried out one of the most complete studies of an interstellar vehicle ever made. Even today, Project Daedalus retains its status as an outstandingly comprehensive reference design. Its final report sits on the shelf of many a starship enthusiast. The bit I want to single out is this one: Parkinson presented some background on the Jovian extraction process, and examined some other options that have been suggested. One possibility is to extract He3 from the lunar regolith. Unfortunately, it appears that while this is technically possible, the huge energy required to extract meager amounts of He3 from immense masses of regolith renders the process economically unfeasible. In brief, the Jupiter mining system is still the preferred option for fueling Daedalus. Here, let me make the important bit easier to see: Unfortunately, it appears that while this is technically possible, the huge energy required to extract meager amounts of He3 from immense masses of regolith renders the process economically unfeasible. |
|
james_nicoll |
10:22a | Note to self The current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is Gordon Brown, not Gordon Ramsay. |
|
james_nicoll |
10:14a | Why do reviewers interrogate works from the wrong perspective? Poll #1482922 Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 107 Most negative reviews are motivated by
View Answers a covert political agenda an overt political agenda the reviewer's personal dislike of the creative staff jealousy mental illness the mistaken application of some poindexterish critical theory to a work outside the proper borders of that theory A failure to apply some poindexterish critical theory to a work for which the theory is clearly suited an inability to read or otherwise properly appreciate the work a lack of intelligence on the part of the review the conspiracy some hypothetical valid reason some other reason (see comments) I would like to complain about this poll |
| scalzifeed | 2:08p | Still Life With Cat and Books
Because what is life without cats and books? Catless and bookless, that’s what.       |
|
james_nicoll |
9:03a | Responding to reviews A Producer takes exception to a reviewer comment. The reviewer takes the time to respond more fully. I've never watched any version of SG so I don't have an opinion. Well, except that replying to reviews except to correct factual errors is a mug's game and also this gives me an idea for a poll. Nicked from telesilla |
|
james_nicoll |
8:16a | A familiar name I was a bit surprised to note that the cleric clad in black leather on the TV show examining the devil in western mythology was in fact Lionel Fanthorpe.  |
|
thru_the_booth [ nancyboflood ] |
7:41a | Get the Indians Out of the Cupboard
Indians in the Cupboard? Perhaps some find this phrase offensive. I hope so because I want to spark discussion about stereotyping Native Americans.
A look at Alternative World Views: Whose stories? Whose voices? Contemporary multicultural books – where are they; who is writing them; how do we find them?
What is the problem? Let’s look at three popular classics: Little House on the Prairie (Wilder ), Peter Pan (James Barrie, 1905?), and Indian in the Cupboard (Banks, 1980). These books are as popular today and used in classrooms as they were when first published. All have characters that “resemble” American Indians – they have black hair, dark skin, the women wear braids, they live in tipis and carry tomahawks, bows and arrows. These characters are typical stereotypes. Stereotypes hurt children. Instead of expanding awareness and appreciation, stereotyping limits understanding and increases separation between people. Stereotypes build walls between “we” and “they.” Stereotyping in any form is poor substitute for getting to know individuals at a meaningful level. The first goal of this discussion is to increase awareness of the subtle racism that exists in the literature we write for children. A second goal is to increase awareness of the mis-information and perpetuation of inaccurate myths -- in our history books, nonfiction picture books, holiday books, and so on. My third goal is to increase awareness of books that represent native people accurately as individuals who may live in cities or reservations, work in schools, hospitals or farms. Debby and I will suggest lists where you can find these books, the awards that celebrate them, the blogs that discuss them. First comes awareness and then follows change. “Look at a photograph and listen with new ears.” Alberto Rios Kathy Short (University of Arizona) speaks eloquently about attitude: “Teaching for intercultural understanding involves far more than lessons on human relations and sensitivity training or country units on only the most visible elements of culture, such as food, fashion, folklore, famous people and festivals…Interculturalism is not a unit, activity, or book, but an attitude of mind.” I was about to read my book, Navajo Year, Walk Through Many Seasons, to my friend’s five-year old grandson. I pointed out that I live on the Navajo Nation Reservation. He looked up at me, eyes round, “Have you ever gotten shot by a bow and arrow?” I explained that Navajo are friendly, like his neighbors. They don’t gallop around on horses shooting arrows. He interrupted – “But what about their tipis?” “Nope, no tipis.” He shook his head, frowned at me. Obviously I didn’t know what I was talking about. “Indians live in tipis and shoot with bows and arrows. See, it shows it right here in this book.” “What book?” He showed me, Peter Pan. How could I argue with Peter Pan? 1. Stereotypes: The Indians in Peter Pan live in tipis, carry tomahawks, wear war paint. For many children these cartoon characters are their only image. There is no difference noted between the tribes, such as Navajo, Cherokee, Apache, Abenaki. Amazing that even today, books and films, videos continue to portray cartoonish caricatures – people with broad faces and long braids.
2. Tokenism to full-board inclusion. Indian characters are included in folk stories about Thanksgiving and Columbus. What real Indian can you name? Their history and people are part of all American history, arts, sciences, sports, music, and authors/illustrators. The body of children’s nonfiction literature -- biographies, natural history, science, social science, athletes –includes very few American Indians or Alaskan natives. In the publishing world today, the smallest group of books is still books by or about American Indians. The field is not all glum. Books are being written that celebrate American Indians as individuals, both in fiction and nonfiction. Joseph Bruchac has written hundreds of excellent books. Some outstanding examples include his picture-book biography, Jim Thorpe’s Bright Path, and A Boy Called Slow, the True Story of Sitting Bull, and his middle-grade historical novel, Hidden Roots. In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie brings the unique voice of Junior who tells it like it is – being an adolescent and growing up in “two worlds.” Past tense: Most published books about American Indians focus on the past as if these people have not continued to thrive and change. Just as people living in the Midwest no longer live in sod houses as described in the “Little House” series, people from tribes in the Midwest no longer live in tipis. Where are the books about contemporary heroes and heroines? Ask a child to name an American Indian and you might hear them say Pocahantas or Geronimo. What about writers like Michael Lacapa or Cynthia Leitich Smith; athletes like Notah Begay (golfer) or Jacoby Ellsbury (Red Sox baseball player) Artists like Alan Houser or RC Gorman, performers like Buffy Saint Marie or R. Carlos Nakai? Filmmakers like Sherman Alexie or Sandra Sunrising Osawa? Where are the books that present accurate images of outstanding American Indians to inspire young people today? Why are there still stereotypes that present images of “savages” running around wearing breech cloths or war paint? 3. Inaccurate history: History books are written by the victors. As writers or teachers we can encourage the critical thinking skills of our readers. Look at history from both sides. Is Columbus a hero to American Indians? Why is the story of the “discovered people” seldom told from their point of view?
Marc Aronson says it well in this paragraph: "Rather than examine famous peoples’ lives or historical movements critically, today’s children’s books often leave kids with little more than legends—George Washington and the cherry tree; Thomas Jefferson, the sage of Monticello, minus any mention of Sally Hemings, the young slave with whom current DNA evidence shows he fathered six children; our nation’s “glorious” Westward expansion, told exclusively through images of heroic whites and savage Indians. The point of overturning these and other myths isn’t simply to set the record straight; it’s to point out that our interpretation of history is constantly being challenged, debated, and revised. The only way we can bring that crucial message to young people is if we risk sharing our doubts about the very accounts they were taught in elementary school. If we do that, students may at first feel like they’ve been fooled. But just as in middle-grade and YA novels that turn fairy tales upside down and inside out, young people will have an opportunity to use what they’ve learned as a baseline to develop new, more accurate understandings—which is precisely what we want." The presentation of new understandings and some solutions is what we will talk about this week. I invite your suggestions, please. |
| kenmacleodblog | 10:39a | Chris Harman, 1942 - 2009 Chris Harman, who since the 1960s was a leading thinker and activist in the Socialist Workers Party (Britain), died on Friday. Although I didn't know him personally, his writings had a huge effect on my life, as they did on many thousands of others. Condolences to all those who did know him, particularly his family and friends.  |
|
james_nicoll |
1:05a | 700 million would-be migrants Americans will be pleased/horrified to know the US is still destination number one for people who want to migrate. Canada's would-be incomers are disappointingly small in number at 45 million. |
| xkcd_rss | 5:00a | |
digg 
facebook 
reddit 
stumbleupon 
0 (0.0%)
