I was feeling chuffed a couple of days ago, and it continues. A couple of mentions of me have slipped onto my radar lately, and both of them made me go Woah. If you’re interested in seeing nice things written by esteemed people, they’re in the extended section of this post.
Month: October 2008
Salt Fish Girl Onstage
Sometimes I do wish I was back over where I could see cool stage productions and stuff. (Or get involved with them or something.) Like the upcoming adaptation by Gein Wong (&co.) of Larissa Lai‘s novel Salt Fish Girl. Say what you want about Wong’s “spoken word” performances (not my thing, but then, that’s true of most “spoken word” or whatever they call it), but this looks interesting: And no, I haven’t read the book yet, but I did get my hands on it. I’m hoping to get at it sometime this semester, as I’m likely to be using another …
Props to Carl Sagan
(I mean, for something more than being the guy who made my high school physics class interesting. We watched some video and I was like, “Hey, this is that The Dragons of Eden guy!” Or for being a great science-popularizer.) I’m reading the novel he wrote, Contact, right now, and despite the obvious criticisms many have made — such as that the novel is the postmodern response to the Femi Paradox: if there are no aliens, mankind shall have to invent them — there are a few things that are pretty striking about the first third (or so) of the …
What’s the Problem?
UPDATE (2:30pm): I still haven’t seen the top man in the office, but some other high-level guy I’d seen before showed up with one of the below-mentioned Tweedles today, and said that, yeah, it’d really be better if we moved upstairs, as the place we’re now in is about to be torn apart to figure out what the hell is causing the recurrent tank leak above my closet. The good news? They’re going to be sending some guys over to “help” move the stuff upstairs. The bad news? Moving is a pain in the ass, we’ll have one fewer room, …
No Respect, I Tell Ya
So I’m researching (actually, flipping through a book and giggling at, though also trying to find good examples of) old hipster slang — that is, white hipster slang — and what, pray tell, did I find? Goon from Saskatoon: An idiot, a square. No respect, I tell ya. We get no respect. Then again, it’s kind of true, and was probably even more true in the 1930s. Another one I got a kick out of was Hot pillow joint, which is, of course, a hotel that rents out rooms by the hour. Just the kind of thing I can actually …
Third Time’s When I Flip Out
Yup. My closet started dripping again on Friday, and as usual with sudden housing emergencies, this was a national holiday. The lowest-level guys on campus, who can’t do anything but stop the immediate problem, showed up and, well, sort of fixed it. If “fixed” means that it stopped dripping but could start again at any time, leaving me with a ton of washing to do, and a closet I cannot use, and who knows how much actual repair to be done because, you know, a pretty wallpaper job? It doesn’t stop a faulty water tank from drenching your clothes. Or, …
Chuffed!
Bluetyson wrote: Seems whatever I have read by Gord Sellar recently has been interesting. … and I get to feel chuffed!
Bruce Sterling at Lift 2008, Jeju
I thought about going to the Lift conference in Jeju, just because Bruce Sterling was talking there. I didn’t get around to it, but thanks to a post by Florence Chee, I was made aware of the online video of his talk. For anyone interested in Korea, the future, and/or SF, it’s worth checking out, since Bruce Sterling is a major SF author and futurist, and since it’s all about Korea. Unfortunately, I think Bruce skipped the likeliest solution to the problems he outlines early on in his talk: physical restraint. I suspect that the North Korean borders will become …
At the Conference (Besides Me)
This recent post by Ben Goldsmith, one of the people I met at the AKS Conference I mentioned here, reminded me that I didn’t discuss any of the talks I saw by other people — mostly, I like to think, because I was so overwhelmingly relieved by the fact my own talk was not a disaster. (According to Ben’s post, absolutely not, and he was very kindly encouraging in person too, as was everyone else.) Here’s what I saw others talk about: on the first day, I saw a couple of interesting talks in the morning. One by Paul Bradley …
How Candlegirl and V Took on 2MB
It feels so long ago, but I still think it’s worth a look back: My article on the SFnal side of the anti-2MB protests that rocked Seoul this past summer, titled “How Candle Girl and V Took on 2MB”, is now up at the excellent Clarkesworld. It touches on the political reception and adaptation of foreign SF, techno-protest culture, Korean politics and food-culture, and more. Not quite something for everyone, but lots of stuff swirling around the nexus there. The ending is a bit, well, dated — I wrote it back in August, and it sounds like the protests just …