Those Mohammed Cartoons

I was traveling when the whole thing about the cartoons of Mohammed his the world media. My first reaction was to think, “Jeez, guys, chill out. It’s just cartoons by infidels! It’s not as if your media doesn’t make nasty cartoons too, you know. Now, I know that it’s considered wrong to depict Mohammed, and that in Islam that’s rooted in a more deep and lasting taboo on pictorial depictions of Allah. Okay, fine, that’s their religion. But the thing is, nobody has any right to force others to obey their religion. For example, Muslim extremists would probably also like …

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Not Making That Tom Waits Joke

…because it’s not true, it’s just that the rooms are so small here in Japan that I feel really big. Everything on TV twenty minutes ago was deeply weird, but it seems to have normalized now. Free internet in my room, the Sun Life Hotel in Fukuoka. If I had readers in Japan, I’d put out an offer to meet anyone who felt like it and have dinner and a beer, but I don’t think I know anyone in Fukuoka. Ah well. Maybe the foreign guys I met at the airport and went to the embassy with will call, and …

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Cory’s Podcasts

Are any of my readers doing like me, and enjoying the absolutely wonderful podcasts that Cory Doctorow has made of his short (and longish) stories — some of them in progress, others previously published? I’m really enjoying them, so much so that I’m even considering doing something like this myself with stories in progress, or stories at the beta stage — you know, things finished but needing a rewrite or some fine editing. Reading aloud helps with this, and why not let others enjoy the reading aloud bit. Would any readers be interested in me podcasting older stories of mine? …

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On My Way, Part 2

Well, I was planning to post, “I’m Here,” as the follow-up to the last post, but now I find myself on my way again. I was in my apartment by 5:00pm and Lime dropped by with coffee, the angel, and after that we went around Bucheon for a while. At first I thought I wasn’t tired, but after we had a nice dinner, I found myself absolutely exhausted, so we got us some sleep. This morning, when I woke up, I couldn’t bear to start unpacking. I had the yogourt I’d bought last night, and some orange juice, and just …

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