I’ve never even used a Palmpilot. Ah well… Which OS are You? (via oddunout)
Month: November 2005
The Almost Finished And Barely Begun Books — Reading AND Writing Of Late
This “Lunar New Year” thing took a big hit when I started studying The Cantos with those guys at work. No more do I have spare hours to read through two or three books in a couple of weeks and post about them. These days, the spare time that isn’t taken up by other projects, and working on lesson plans, gets devoted to studying the Cantos in increasingly more detail, which is strange considering that the more I study the poems, the more I consider their author a kind of madman. In any case, I have only completed one book …
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy?
For all you would-be SF authors (like me), here’s a guide. (nabbed from BoingBoing)
Eluvium and other worthwhile music
I’m going to post about one album I’ve really enjoyed lately, and then post a few words about other neat finds. The Big Pleasure: Eluvium’s Lambent Material Maybe you don’t like The Orb; I can understand that, but please don’t make the mistake of thinking all ambient music is like The Orb. For example, consider Brian Eno. Consider the soundscapes of John Cage. And please, definitely consider the music of Matthew Cooper, who records under the pseudonym Eluvium. My first impressions listening to it, right now, are that it is a kind of sweet, slow, Brian Enoesque thing, but with …
Julia’s Got It: Comment #2000
Julia’s comment on this post was comment #2000 on my blog. This entitles her to one very nice Korean handpainted fan which I’ll be posting her very soon. (I plan on posting a lot of things very soon, but I really will indeed be posting these things, doubt me not!) I am glad that someone who has posted as many comments as Julia lucked out in this case, as she has made a strong impression on me as a regular reader, and a helpful one, too, pointing out link errors or suggesting other interpretations of things. But I also want …
Wired 13.11: The Mystery of the Green Menace
So this guy named Ted Breaux reverse engineered old samples of absinthe from before it was banned. Microbiologist guy, proved it wasn’t toxic in ways previously believed. you know, stuff like that.
Elementary Camp — A Horde of Childe
Yes, we would be able to mount a Childrens’ Crusade or something. I’m not kidding! It’s now all Elementary School-level classes, with the Middle School camp program being canceled by City Hall, apparently to make way for the new English Village program in the city. Last I heard the numbers were roughly 150 elementary school-aged kids, divided between 11 teachers. It will definitely have to be split into upper and lower level groups, or, perhaps, split in two different ways, sometimes split ABCDE/FGHIJK (such as in academic competitions), and sometimes split ACEGIK/BDFHJ (as for drama day, so two classes of …
Sounds Like Me
Caring for Your Introvert is a good article on why staying home alone on Saturday nights isn’t some sign of something bad or wrong after all. via Weird is Relative.
Asking What Nobody Else Dares
On his website, Why Does God Hate Amputees?, Marshall Brain takes the theodicy to a whole new, personal level. While some of his criticisms depend upon a rather unsophisticated form of belief — assuming the Bible is the literal writing of God — he does raise some questions which I think most Biblical literalists would have a lot of trouble answering without sounding crazy.
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Can you trust Wikipedia?
None of the contributors to this Guardian Article, Can you trust Wikipedia? seem to get that Wikipedia’s merit is that a person like them, with the knowledge, can edit the thing, contirbuting in some small way to the repair of the encyclopedia. It’s not just currently a draft version, but it is conceivably a continually improvable version, of the encyclopedia. Of course, it would be nice if Wikipedia could afford to pay experts to spend a year going through all subjects in their speciality, but even as it is now, it’s a pretty good starting point for background information on …