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David Alexander McDonald (Steven E. McDonald)

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And now...the pointy end approaches [May. 10th, 2012|01:32 am]
[Tags|, , ]
[Wait, I felt something! |nervoustrepidatious]

In six hours I go under the knife for replacement lens surgery on my left eye, to replace the lens that's gone adrift and become distorted because of the way the eye surgeon did things in 2004. I'm finding it interesting that my reaction to this now is markedly more anxious than it was back then, although some of that might be the glossing of memory. This is also going to be a little different in that I'm going in alone; in 2004 my former best friend took me in. I have been very stubborn on this point, too, wanting to both go there alone, and return alone, but I was finally convinced to allow a friend to come and pick me up. I will, however, recuperate alone, but this isn't much different from the last time.

My friend Tree remembers this rather well, it seems. Tree was the one who taught me some things about getting around when my vision was almost gone.

My leg wounds have now healed, so the work's started on preventing a repetition of these. I still have to go in to the wound clinic once a week to be bandaged from toes to knee by Gina, my therapist, but this turns out to be less of a drag than it might have been -- Gina's as much of an odd duck as I am, and we find ourselves chatting on about any number of things, the more esoteric the better.

I'd better get on...I need to record a segment for the next Chronic Rift review show, and then try to nap for a little while. Unfortunately I have to get up around the time that I now tend to go to sleep, so sleep may have to wait until I get back.
Link2 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

The Llamas are rioting in the fields [Apr. 24th, 2012|03:38 am]
[Tags|, , ]

Life plods on, pretty much absent updates here from me. Things change, things shift, and apparently I've hit that stage of grief where everything pisses me off...especially when it's stuff severe enough to piss off anyone.

I need to buy a new cane, as I lost my really good cane when someone half-inched it out of a grocery cart at Frys (no kidding; it was, however, my own fault, as these things often are. They could have turned it in, though.) My other regular cane, over twenty years old, ended up broken as the cap to an incident involving a bus driver driving away from a stop and leaving me stuck for an hour with three bags of perishables. Fortunately it was cold weather. Unfortunately I wasn't wearing a jacket. My yell of outrage didn't help at all, nor did my bashing the bus bench with my cane, which shattered -- pretty much on its last legs, that cane. I've been using the Kokopelli stick since, although it's a bit too tall, and a bit unwieldy.

Remember the tale of the eyes, and how laser cleaning the film from my replacement lenses (installed when I had cataract surgery) was supposed to improve matters considerably? Well, it failed in the right eye, but this is something that can be corrected by upping the wattage, which will happen later this week. The result should be clearer vision -- and matters have already improved somewhat in that eye, as my color perception seems better.

The treatment in my left eye? Removed the opacification without a problem...and I promptly started having further vision issues in that eye, with the ghosting and haloing worsening. At this point, I've lost about fifty percent of my vision, which is an unwelcome return to the bad old days of the cataracts starting the rapid phase of their development. It turns out the original surgeon did something very odd in that eye -- I recall him having a strange explanation for what he did -- which apparently resulted in him seating the implant in front of the lens capsule, rather than in it. As a result, when the laser clean-up removed the film, the lens went adrift, and the resulting occlusion is what's causing the vision issues -- the edge of the lens is getting in the way. What's really weird is that the focus in that eye is very good -- seeing through the fog, however, is a major issue, plus I'm getting headaches when I try to use the computer a lot, or spend much time reading.

The fix for this is pretty straightforward. In May I go back in and repeat the surgery on that eye, and get a new implant. Knife to the eye!

There's more besides this, but I need to hit the hay and get some sleep before my visit to the wound clinic to have my dressings changed. Oh, yeah, that's another issue. 2012 is, for me, a year of medical hell, and very much by choice.

I did give in, again, this month to the lure of the Friends Of Pima Library Book Sale, but I donated as much as I picked up, I think. I may yet make headway. The haul was okay, not truly great. Nine CDs, two DVDs, two audiobooks (disappointing, this, as I'd hoped to find more), and an assortment of paperbacks and hardcovers. I didn't find any more Hard Case Crime releases, but I wasn't really looking that hard by that point. Had I gone for a second bag, I would probably have browsed more carefully, but time was pressing, and I was tired and hungry (I was fasting for a blood draw that, as it turned out, had to be canceled because of some weirdness with the medical transportation bookers.)

Alright, of to bed with me!
Link1 said somethin'|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

Marking progress up the slops of Mount TBR [Mar. 30th, 2012|01:28 am]
[Tags|, ]

And now, the entire list in one place, with annotations!

I'm rather inconsistent with how I'm approaching this pile of books, and as you can see I've now gone beyond the Everest count, as I keep adding books. The rate of progress has picked up a bit lately, however, with the recent doctors orders confining me to bed for much of my time (more on this later, as I'm having to ration my time at the computer.) As I'm also spending more time in doctor's offices, I'm getting more read there too, rather than relying on the MP3 player. It should be noted, however, that I'm also getting library books into the mix, as always -- right now I'm finishing up Fred Olen Ray's The New Poverty Row, which is an admittedly biased view from an exploitation producer about the exploitation film industry, with a focus on the distribution angle.

Books in progress are italicized, finished books are struck out and annotated. There's still a long way to go, but now I've figured out how I can more easily read in bed, I'm in good shape to get well into this.

01) Stephen Fry - Making History
02) Caleb Carr - Killing Time
-Oh, good lord, it's a Verneian polemic set in the future, with super-scientists out to fix the world. I got through it, but it wasn't easy.

03) Frederik Pohl - The Voices Of Heaven (audio)
-I was disappointed with this, unfortunately. It's nicely written and thoroughly unenthralling.

04) David Brin - Sundiver
05) Todhunter Ballard - High Iron
06) Dean Owen - Last Chance Range
07) D. B. Newton - Shotgun Guard
08) Alan LeMay - Thunder In The Dust
09) Eugene Cunningham - Riders Of the Night
10) L.L. Foreman - The Renegade
11) Lewis B. Patten - The Odds Against Circle L
12) Richard S. Prather - Lie Down, Killer
13) Cornell Woolrich - Fright
14) Richard Aleas - Songs Of Innocence
15) Richard S. Prather - Darling, It's Death
16) James A. Michener - The Bridges At Toko-Ri
17) Alan Ryan (ed.) - Vampires: two Centuries Of Great Vampire Stories
18) Janet Evanovich - Fearless Fourteen
19) James Kakalios - The Physics Of Superheroes
20) DC Showcase Presents Dial H For Hero
21) Edward S. Aarons - Assignment Cong Hai Kill
22) John Zakour - The Frost-Haired Vixen
23) DeCandido/Mack/York - Star Trek S.C.E. Book 6 Wildfire
24) Sharyn McCrumb - Bimbos Of the Death Sun
25) Ed McBain - Widows
26) Bradford Scott - Curse Of Texas Gold
27) John Brunner - The Dramaturges Of Yan
28) Shelby Foote - Shiloh
29) John Zakour & Lawrence Ganem - The Plutonium Blonde
30) Stephen Bly - Friends And Enemies
31) Stephen King - Hearts In Atlantis (audio)
-You know, King's writing isn't bad, and he has moments of absolute brilliance, and he can certainly paint quite the picture when he's working at it...but there are times when I wish he'd just bloody well get to the point! This was a hard one to get through, even in audiobook form.

32) The Essential Iron Man Vol. 1
33) Ellis Peters - The Funeral Of Figaro (audio)
34) Alan Paton - Cry, The Beloved Country (audio)
35) Marvel Essential Tomb Of Dracula Vol. 4
36) Alastair Reynolds - Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
37) Sandra McDonald - The Stars Down Under
38) Peter F. Hamilton - The Reality Dysfunction
39) David Toop - Ocean Of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound, And Imaginary Worlds
40) David Manning (Ed.) - Vaughan-Williams On Music
41) James Patterson - London Bridges (audio)
-I don't know what happened with this book, but it comes across as though Patterson was writing sections of it furiously while sitting in airport lounges on the way to various places. I have the shape of the story somewhat but I'll be damned if it actually makes sense. This is without bringing up the multiple endings.

42) Janet Evanovich - Plum Lucky (audio)
43) Frederik Pohl - The Best Of
-What's to say? An excellent selection of short stories and novelettes from Fred.

44) Greg Palast - Vulture's Picnic
45) Charlotte MacLeod - Exit The Milkman
46) Charles De Lint - Medicine Road
47) Charles Stross - Halting State
48) J. G. Ballard - The Burning World
49) Nevada Barr - Endangered Species (audio)
50) Various - Dinosaur Fantastic (anthology)
- The nice thing about anthologies is that you're not stuck with a bad story for very long. It's interesting to see the various ways that people meet the criterion of getting dino-related elements into their tales. A couple are flat out wonkily weird.

51) Frederik Pohl - Platinum Pohl
52) Max Estes - Hello, Again
-A cute and quick read from Top Shelf
53) Loren D. Estleman - General Murders (audio, read by Robert Forster)
-I was initially thrown by Forster's voice, as it initially seemed wrong for Estleman's Amos Walker character. Ten minutes in, it seemed perfect, just the right worn, deep tone. It's a short collection, but very enjoyable.

54) Pierre Boulle - The Bridge Over The River Kwai
55) Robert Terrall - Kill Now, Pay Later
56) Jack Prelutsky - Behold The Bold Umbrellaphant And Other Poems (audio)
-Needs another listen, I think. It's the audio version of three of his kid's books.

57) Randy Kennedy - Subwayland (non-fiction about the New York subways and underground life)
58) Jon Ronson - The Psychopath Test
-Narrated by Ronson, thankfully, and much more organized than his The Men Who Stare At Goats. He takes a trip through the Mental Health industry, with a focus on how psychopathy is defined, and finds himself branching out to examine the Scientologists and those who stalk the halls of power and the dungeons of Wall Street.

59) Elizabet Peterzen - The Last Draw (Sista Stcket in Sweden)
60) Lawrence Block - The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep
61) Chuck Rosenthal - The Heart Of Mars
62) Christopher Moore - You Suck
63) Elmer Kelton - Shotgun
64) Lawrence Block - Some Days You Get The Bear
The title story in this was a pleasant surprise, quirky, with an odd ending that makes me wonder about the further story of the man who need to sleep with a teddybear and the woman who slept with her boa constrictor. Overall, a quite enjoyable collection that ended up as my traveling book.

65) Ed McBain - Fiddlers
A pretty basic 87th Precinct mystery, with a lot of odd interaction with the characters -- all sorts of romances staggering into being, falling apart, maintaining. Meanwhile someone is killing older people. Oddly, all of the polie characters seem to be established here as being i their mid-thirties...apparently since the first book, published in 1958.

66) Jack Gantos - I am Not Joey Pigza (audio)
67) Rick Geary - The Fatal Bullet
I was surprised to find myself being drawn into this graphic adaptation of the story of the assassination of President Garfield and the sorry, sordid tale of his assassin. I'm now looking forward to the other Geary books.

68) Rick Geary - The Case Of Madeleine Smith
69) Rick Geary - The Mystery Of Mary Rogers
70) Sir John Betjeman - Summoned By Bells (audio)
71) Stephen King - Blood And Smoke (audio)
72) Ray Bradbury - From The Dust Returned (audio)
73) Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Company (audio)
-While I can enjoy the historical detail, I've felt that sometimes the novels get bogged down, and somewhat repetitive and tedious. At the same time I'm fascinated by Cornwell's historical afternotes.

74) Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Sword (audio)
-This was hard to get through at times, as Sharpe has an antagonist here who's genuinely horrible.

75) Loren D. Estleman - Retro (audio)
76) raúlrsalinas - Red Arc: a call for liberacion
-Southwestern beat poetry, listening to it, with Fred Ho on sax. It's unfortunately on the whiny end of beat poetry, but I'm going to give it another go.

77) Leslie Ernenwein - Rampage West
78) Adam Hall - Quiller
-Adam Hall was a major influence on my writing. This is now my traveling book.

79) David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day (audio)
- Sometimes salty, often pithy, and at times very funny. I was suitably amused.

80) John C. Dofflemeyer (ed.) - Maverick Western Verse
81) Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Trafalgar (audio)
82) Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - The Palace
83) Martin H. Greenberg (ed.) - The Further Adventures Of The Man Of Steel
84) John Whitman - 24 Declassified: Cat's Claw
85) Steve Frazee - Tumbling Range Woman
85) Harutoshi Fukui - Samurai Commando: Mission 1549 Vols. 1 & 2 (doing both of these together as they're a complete story)
86) Brian W. Aldiss - Bow Down To Nul
87) Richard S. Prather - The Cheim Manuscript
88) Richard S. Prather - The Shell Scott Sampler
89) Richard North Patterson - Protect And Defend (audio)
90) Al Franken - Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them (audio - maybe, as I have this in a large print edition as well as on cassette)
91) Martin H. Greenberg (ed.) - The Further Adventures Of Batman, Vol. 2
92) Eddie Campbell - The Black Diamond Detective Agency
93)Jon Ronson - The Men Who Stare At Goats
-This rambles a bit more than I'd like, unlike The Psychopath Test. Even so, when I finally got to the movie I was very annoyed that the reporter character was an American...it took me a while to swallow the fictionalized element of the production. Ronson himself is such a quirky character that they really should have had Ewan MacGregor playing an analogue of him, rather than a generic neurotic American,

94) Brian K. Vaughan - Runaways: Teenage Wasteland
95) Brian K. Vaughan - Runaways: The Good Die Young
96) Runaways - True Believers
97) Ray Bradbury - Himself (audio) (Bradbury reading nineteen stories)
-And not a one of them unfamiliar, which is okay. Enjoyable performances from Bradbury.

98) Ray Bradbury - Dandelion Wine (audio)
99) Bernard Cornwell -- Sharpe's Honor (audio)
100) Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Rifles (audio)
101) Richard Wilbur - The Voice Of The Poet (audio/text)
102) Armistead Maupin - The Night Listener (audio)
103) Jonathan Lethem - You Don't Love Me Yet (audio)
104) Sena Jeter Naslund - Four Spirits (audio)
105) Anthony Lloyd - My War Gone By, I Miss It So (audio)
106) Len Deighton-Funeral In Berlin
-With the ongoing enforced moribundity, with me confined to bed much of the time, I've been wandering about amongst the audiobooks. I started in on this one yesterday evening, and just never stopped with it. The tapes, though, are in rather questionable shape. My dead tree copy of the novel is in one of the stacks under the coffee table. And as I've done The Ipcress File (last year), I suppose I'll soon have to reread The Billion-Dollar Brain and Horse Under Water.

107) E. E. "Doc" Smith - Triplanetary
-My friend Tribs got a flea in her ear about reading these books, and that got me interested in reading them again, and so here we are. Oh, was this ever starchy space opera fun. I don't think it's aged all that well. Still and all, expect the other books in the series to follow on in this list.
LinkYeah, I got somethin' ta say

The Eyes Of A Stranger [Mar. 10th, 2012|12:19 pm]
[Tags|]

Well, I got through the laser eye treatment, and now know more about the process than I did before it was scheduled...did I mention that I love to research? The capsulotomy is supposed to de-film the implanted lenses, but contrary to the surgeon's attitude, and according to the techs and nurses, it takes a few days for everything to settle down -- until then they won't know what my new prescription is going to be. As it seems that the remains of the capsule are still floating around in my left eye (as I have continued haloing, and focus is variable) the techs and nurses would be right. I can also see my vision changing almost by the hour -- and my regular reading glasses are now pretty much useless for computer work, and I'm having to manage with a rather battered pair of magnifiers...I think I'm going to have to make a stop at the dollar store for a new pair, rather weaker than the ones I usually use for books.

It's a very odd feeling.

By the time everything's settled down, I'm told I'll have 20/20 vision in the left eye and either 20/30 or 20/40 in the right, although I'll still need glasses -- probably bifocals, for the firs time in my life. At this point I'm really looking forward to that, if only because I can't see struggling with this set-up for very long...! I'm assuming there'll be correction for astigmatism as well, and I don't think the implants corrected that issue.

Now for the next set of problems. This is going to be a busy year when it comes to my health.
Link1 said somethin'|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

Just call me Edwin.... [Mar. 8th, 2012|04:28 am]
[Tags|, , ]
[Wait, I felt something! |apatheticapathetic]
[Needle Hits Groove |Don Black On John Barry: Beyond Bond]

I have some degree of sympathy for the old Hubble Space Telescope now, you know, in that it turns out that my optics are faulty. In the case of the Hubble, it was the mirror that was the cause of focus issues. In my case, it's down to my implants, which I've had since 2004's somewhat fraught cataract surgery (aside from the difficulties apparently presented by the depth of my eyes, there was an unexpected delay in getting the right eye attended to, during which it deteriorated finally to the same degree that the left eye had.) I *should* have had several follow-up appointments to check that everything was in order back in 2004, and proceeded to let this slide, for a variety of reasons.

So now here we are in 2012, and I've finally gotten around to it, and the mysteries of my vision have been somewhat explained. I've continued to need glasses, and have been using dollar-store magnifiers for quite some time, as they seem to work for me when reading text; I can use my old reading glasses when working at the computer. Focus, however, has been spotty throughout, and I've been known to wake up completely blind, something that can take up to an hour to fully pass; I also have severe haloing and shadowing in the left eye, especially at night -- just looking at one of my lamps, for instance, I get a general halo, and an offset ghost image below the lamp. At its worst, this makes it troublesome to actually have that eye open at certain times -- bright but overcast days are a menace, for instance.

The recent examination by my ophthalmologist indicates that I have 20/40 and 20/70 vision, which is interesting because the indicators are that my vision's worse than that. Indeed it is -- I have filming on both implants, which is playing hell with both focus and light perception, explaining why I need so much light in my current place, lest I perceive it as a gloomy, gloomy dwelling. This is apparently Posterior Capsule Opacity

Fortunately for me, the solution to this is much simpler than the solution for Hubble -- no astronauts, no space shuttle, no taking out bits and replacing them with new bits. No, they just zap me in the eyes with lasers. Frickin' laser beams to the eyes! Apparently this will burn off the film, reducing it to a very fine ash that dissolves quickly in the vitreous fluid. There's a slight chance of retinal detachment, but I can live with that. I've been told I can expect my vision to substantially improve as a result...well, at least once the dilation drops wear off, anyway (during the examination they used numbing drops twice and a huge dose of the dilator, so I spent the next several hours walking around in a blind fog. It brought back some not so fond memories.)

Anyway, this is part of the ongoing attack on my medical issues. I have the cardiologist coming up, which rather frightens me.

In other news, I just finally got a new mattress, and, oh, it's been a joy.

I've also admitted that I need to find a counselor, and have a good long talk. Both kasey and Jens' deaths hit me hard, and something seems to have burrowed in, and I don't like the way I'm feeling right now, or the directions I'm moving in. I've always been prone to taking to the hermitage, but it's more pronounced than ever right now, and this can't be good for me. Karma dying didn't help, either. I feel both intensely alone, and overwhelmed by people.

Anyway, I need to get a little sleep. Time to hit that newly wonderful bed.
Link2 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

Following Brian Blessed up that very last mile [Feb. 26th, 2012|01:59 am]
[Tags|, , ]
[Wait, I felt something! |tiredtired]

The beginning of my Mount TBR challenge.

And the most recent expansion of the list.

It just keeps going and going, this effort, and I'm quite enjoying it. I'm finding places to read the short story collections like Lawrence Block's Sometimes You Get The Bear, and even the poetry collections such as raúlrsalinas' Red Arc. I'm finding myself less enthralled, however, by the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell, but I'm determined to go through the ones I have. I've been trying to resist the call of adding enough additional books to pull me the rest of the way to the Everest level, but in this, I'm afraid, I've failed...and so here we are again. I already got started on this batch -- and considering that it's the Everest section, I expect to past 100...and be done with them all by the end of the year.

76) raúlrsalinas - Red Arc: a call for liberacion (southwestern beat poetry, listening to it, with Fred Ho on sax.)
77) Leslie Ernenwein - Rampage West
78) Adam Hall - Quiller (Adam Hall was a major influence on my writing early on)
79) David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day (audio)
80) John C. Dofflemeyer (ed.) - Maverick Western Verse
81) Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Trafalgar (audio)
82) Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - The Palace
83) Martin H. Greenberg (ed.) - The Further Adventures Of The Man Of Steel
84) John Whitman - 24 Declassified: Cat's Claw
85) Steve Frazee - Tumbling Range Woman
85) Harutoshi Fukui - Samurai Commando: Mission 1549 Vols. 1 & 2 (doing both of these together as they're a complete story)
86) Brian W. Aldiss - Bow Down To Nul
87) Richard S. Prather - The Cheim Manuscriupt
88) Richard S. Prather - The Shell Scott Sampler
89) Richard North Patterson - Protect And Defend (audio)
90) Al Franken - Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them (audio - maybe, as I have this in a large pring edition as well as on cassette)
91) Martin H. Greenberg (ed.) - The Further Adventures Of Batman, Vol. 2
92) Eddie Campbell - The Black Diamond Detective Agency
93)Jon Ronson - The Men Who Stare At Goats
94) Brian K. Vaughan - Runaways: Teenage Wasteland
95) Brian K. Vaughan - Runaways: The Good Die Young
96) Runaways - True Believers
97) Ray Bradbury - Himself (audio) (Bradbury reading nineteen stories)</strike>
98) Ray Bradbury - Dandelion Wine (audio)
99) Bernard Cornwell -- Sharpe's Honor (audio)
100) Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Rifles (audio)
101) Richard Wilbur - The Voice Of The Poet (audio/text)
102) Armistead Maupin - The Night Listener (audio)
103) Jonathan Lethem - You Don't Love Me Yet (audio)
104) Sena Jeter Naslund - Four Spirits (audio)
105) Anthony Lloyd - My War Gone By, I Miss It So (audio)
106) E. E. "Doc" Smith - Triplanetary

On other fronts, audio and video, I'm not paying as much attention as I should to the audio stuff recenty acquired -- I've yet to play any of the cassettes (at the bag sale I found a handful of Native American releases; these will eventually be digitized and cleaned up) and I've only played a couple of the recent CD acquisitions, although one disc is already set to be redonated because, honestly, how the hell did I manage to pick up a Coldplay CD? On the video front I'm not doing too splendid a job in keeping track of what I'm watching -- I did finally get to the "Gently Evil" episode of Inspector George Gently a couple of days back, and, right after talking about the character of George Smiley (I do rather empathize with old George) pulled out Sidney Lumet's adaptatio of Call For The Dead, retitled The Deadly Affair, with James Mason playing a renamd Smiley. Curiously enough, elements of the film that weren't in the book might well have been used by Le Carre for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

On the life front, I'm struggling along a bit with the health, and taking steps to get something done about that (slowly.) I'm having an eye consult on Tuesday, to see how I'm doing eight years post-surgery, and other things will be tackled one by one over the coming weeks. Socially, I think I'm limping along right now...I've been running various meetups here, but one of those got stepped on by an associated group, who announced a major demo a week after I'd announced the pilot of a new group. Another of my meetups has been shedding members seriously over the last couple of months, and I've finally taken the hint and canceled that one. It's a bit worrying for me, however, as with the agoraphobia, these meetups are one of my few reasons to get out, and thus have been valuable for that alone. Abvsent these as excuses, I'm not sure what I'll do.
LinkYeah, I got somethin' ta say

When Books Attack! [Feb. 24th, 2012|07:34 am]
[Tags|, ]

I feel sorry for the Cox technician who had to come out yesterday to get my phone service back. As soon as he arrived and introduced himself, a stack of old boxes sittring on the patio keeled over with a crash. Mind you, the effect was less on him than on me, as I'd forgotten what the lower boxes in that particular stack contained. Books. Of course. I've known for a while that sooner or later some of these books were going to make a break for it. In this instance, it was textbooks, some of which had been damaged (thank you, late cats, and hall-peeing Taliesin the demented dog) long ago. So while the gent from Cox did his thing on the outside, I fought the books to a standstill o the patio. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this lot, although the damaged books will likely get chucked into the recycling bin...which I hate to do, but some of these are a testament to the eternal power of cat urine.

The phone issue -- in the space of a few hours it went from fully functional to dead -- was apparently a dead junction box, and the solution to the problem was to replace my admittedly aging Motorola modem with a brand-new Cisco DOCSIS 3.0 phone modem. Unfortunately, this also entailed a bureaucracy dump in the form of newly-mandated third-party verification, which meant that both the tech and myself spent way too much time waiting for the wheels to grind around several times in a row before everything was settled, and even then he had to go through the process of setting up a tech ticket so the new modem could be fully activated. On the plus side, the resulting phone service is the clearest and loudest it's ever been. The new box might even clear up some ongoing Internet issues I've had, although it may be that I also need to replace the aging router, which is a seven year old Netgear that's barely younger than the modem I just replaced.
Link1 said somethin'|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

Sometimes I believe that the hot-air balloon might have served better.... [Feb. 20th, 2012|04:35 am]
[Tags|, ]
[Wait, I felt something! |moodymoody]
[Needle Hits Groove |Bill Nelson - [Golden Melodies Of Tomorrow CD1 #09] The Old Nebulosity Waltz]

It's very nice to be getting back into the swing of reading, as it makes a nice respite from the psychological turmoil -- I'm finding myself trying to isolate more and more, depressed about large sections of my life, and often bored and hopeless. Books provide me an escape, perhaps a better one, at that, than cinema and television.

I finished Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test in surprisingly short order, and I think it bears going over again, although it does point out, once again, just how many psychopaths we have in politics, whether here in the US or operational in other parts of the world. Nor are these people birds of a feather; they have commonalities, but many of them have a sheen of their very own -- Mitt Romney is not Newt Gingrich is not David Cameron, and so on. It doesn't much matter whether you go left or go right, they're out there, and they're out there in business, and high finance. For all that this might be true, however, Ronson also points out some of the falalcies and flaws in modern psychiatric diagnosis and treatment (as well as pointing out the major flaws in anti-psychiatric operations. Ronson may be one of the few people to effectively get away with making a mockery of the practices of the Scientologists.)

I'm almost done with Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Sword, recounting the travails of now-Captain Richard Sharpe and his rifle company in Spain, as Wellington takes on the French in a devastating series of battles complicated by spies and betrayals. I'm amused that even though this audio book edition is read by one David Case, I keep managing to translate his voice into that of Sean Bean for all of Sharpe's dialogue. It's good old fashioned chest-thumping historical action from the point of view of an uncommon common man, and if there's seemingly a bit much of the old shot and shell and sword at times, that's just the way of it. Cornwell doesn't shy away from the guts and glory aspect of things. To keep things amusing, I've been listening to this in an old ex-libris cassette edition, which spread the book over eight tapes (apparently this has had four editions so far, with four different readers.)

My current schlepping-around book, carried to places and appointments where using the MP3 player is impractical, is Lawrence Block's Sometimes You Get The Bear, which is a collection of short stories; I seem, for no good reason, to be reading this in reverse order. In a regrettable concession to my aging eyesight, which remains problematic several years ater surgery, I acquired this in a large print edition. While I'm due to acquire new spectacles before too long, I fear that I will still be looking for large print volumes, as well as continuing to indulge (cheaply, if possible) my decade-long enjoyment of audiobooks. Speaking of short stories, I'm also working through Loren D. Estleman's General Murders, which collects five short stories featuring P.I. Amos Walker, all read by Robert Forster.

Finally, on CD, amounting to a quick entry, I popped in the single CD of Jack Prelutsky's Behold The Bold Umbrellaphant And Other Poems, which manages to include three books of relatively nonesense verse and a handful of songs accompanied by acoustic guitar. While aimed at kids, it's the sort of thing I can listen to once in a while without any sort of guilt.

And now I lay me down to sleep. Goodnight, all.
Link1 said somethin'|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

"I don't know what it is," said Sisyphus, "but I just can't stop climbing." [Feb. 14th, 2012|05:41 am]
[Tags|, ]
[Wait, I felt something! |tiredtired]
[Needle Hits Groove |Richard Thompson - She Sang Angels To Rest | Powered by Last.fm]

Another month, another book sale, and another bag day, although this time I'm happy to report that I donated/redonated two bags full of books, magazines, and audiobooks and returned with only one bag full of new acquisitions, though this might in part have had to do with the pickings being a bit slim in some areas, and my habit of approaching the CD racks with what amounts to a high-powered suction device (eighteen CDs, including Richard Thompson's Sweet Warrior in surprisingly fine condition) at the start. For all that, I did get a fresh batch of audiobooks on CD (and a copy of Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine on cassette) and a number of books. I'd intended to try looking for titles in the Hard Case Crime imprint, but this plan came a cropper because of the difficulty spotting the spine design, I was tired and sore (I've been sleeping very badly of late), and being the smart guy that I am, I hadn't printed out a list in advance. If I was being smart about things, I'd probably put all of my books into a database, and print the thing out (or get a cheap tablet I can stick such a list on.) On the bright side, it's rare that I manage to duplicate titles. Also, this wouldn't stop weird mistakes that occasionally I make -- one of the new CD acquisitions wasn't the world music CD I thought it was, but a Coldplay EP.

O)nce again I've been veering off from the original list of books, as well as the expanded list, and this means I'm now going towards the El Toro level of the Mount TBR Challenge -- and, inevitably, towards Mount Everest, at which point it doesn't matter how many more I add on.

The details of the Mount TBR challenge here, with the original list of books.

The Original List:

01) Stephen Fry - Making History
02) Caleb Carr - Killing Time
03) Frederik Pohl - The Voices Of Heaven
04) David Brin - Sundiver
05) Todhunter Ballard - High Iron
06) Dean Owen - Last Chance Range
07) D. B. Newton - Shotgun Guard
08) Alan LeMay - Thunder In The Dust
09) Eugene Cunningham - Riders Of the Night
10) L.L. Foreman - The Renegade
11) Lewis B. Patten - The Odds Against Circle L
12) Richard S. Prather - Lie Down, Killer
13) Cornell Woolrich - Fright
14) Richard Aleas - Songs Of Innocence
15) Richard S. Prather - Darling, It's Death
16) James A. Michener - The Bridges At Toko-Ri
17) Alan Ryan (ed.) - Vampires: two Centuries Of Great Vampire Stories
18) Janet Evanovich - Fearless Fourteen
19) James Kakalios - The Physics Of Superheroes
20) DC Showcase Presents Dial H For Hero
21) Edward S. Aarons - Assignment Cong Hai Kill
22) John Zakour - The Frost-Haired Vixen
23) DeCandido/Mack/York - Star Trek S.C.E. Book 6 Wildfire
24) Sharyn McCrumb - Bimbos Of the Death Sun
25) Ed McBain - Widows
26) Bradford Scott - Curse Of Texas Gold
27) John Brunner - The Dramaturges Of Yan
28) Shelby Foote - Shiloh
29) John Zakour & Lawrence Ganem - The Plutonium Blonde
30) Stephen Bly - Friends And Enemies
31) Stephen King - Hearts In Atlantis
32) The Essential Iron Man Vol. 1
33) Ellis Peters - The Funeral Of Figaro (audio)
34) Alan Paton - Cry, The Beloved Country (audio)
35) Marvel Essential Tomb Of Dracula Vol. 4
36) Alastair Reynolds - Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
37) Sandra McDonald - The Stars Down Under
38) Peter F. Hamilton - The Reality Dysfunction
39) David Toop - Ocean Of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound, And Imaginary Worlds
40) David Manning (Ed.) - Vaughan-Williams On Music

And Then I Added:

41) James Patterson - London Bridges (audio)
42) Janet Evanovich - Plum Lucky (audio)
43) Frederik Pohl - The Best Of
44) Greg Palast - Vulture's Picnic
45) Charlotte MacLeod - Exit The Milkman
46) Charles De Lint - Medicine Road
47) Charles Stross - Halting State
48) J. G. Ballard - The Burning World
49) Nevada Barr - Endangered Species (audio)
50) Various - Dinosaur Fantastic (anthology)

Taking The Horns By The Bull:

51) Frederik Pohl - Platinum Pohl
52) Max Estes - Hello, Again (a cute and quick read from Top Shelf)
53) Loren D. Estleman - General Murders (audio, read by Robert Forster)
54) Pierre Boulle - The Bridge Over The River Kwai
55) Robert Terrall - Kill Now, Pay Later
56) Jack Prelutsky - Behold The Bold Umbrellaphant And Other Poems (audio)
57) Randy Kennedy - Subwayland (non-fiction about the New York subways and underground life)
58) Jon Ronson - The Psychopath Test
59) Elizabet Peterzen - The Last Draw (Sista Stcket in Sweden)
60) Lawrence Block - The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep
61) Chuck Rosenthal - The Heart Of Mars
62) Christopher Moore - You Suck
63) Elmer Kelton - Shotgun
64) Lawrence Block - Some Days You Get The Bear
65) Ed McBain - Fiddlers

I know there's ten more to go on the list, but I'm going to get to those later because right now I need to sleep. I'll add the other ten below this, later on.

The Next Fast Blast:

66) Jack Gantos - I am Not Joey Pigza (audio)
67) Rick Geary - The Fatal Bullet
68) Rick Geary - The Case Of Madeleine Smith
69) Rick Geary - The Mystery Of Mary Rogers
70) Sir John Betjeman - Summoned By Bells (audio)
71) Stephen King - Blood And Smoke (audio)
72) Ray Bradbury - From The Dust Returned (audio)
73) Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Company (audio)
74) Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Sword (audio)
75) Loren D. Estleman - Retro (audio)

I already have a new stack started that's going to be up to 25 before too long. Little by little, chipping away, chipping away.....
Link2 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

Hammering in the pitons [Jan. 30th, 2012|08:15 pm]
I walk around with a carabiner in my pocket, you know; it's not that I'm happy to see you, just that there's an increasing mass of metal in my pants. It's attached to the multitool I got as an incentive from the former Nielsen consumer research arm, and my battered little keyring, with its two-key complement, is hooked onto the other end of it. Alas, it's a small carabiner, and absolutely no use for climbing purposes. Not that I can climb anything beyond a moderate slope or a small set of stairs at the moment.

There's been a smattering of good news. The chronic MRSA I've been enduring for years, in outbreaks large and small, appears to have been beaten not only into remission, but eliminated entirely from my system, which, if true, is very nice, though it didn't depart before doing considerable damage, given opportunity by that other chronic issue, the dermatitis. My Doctor suspects that the elimination of the bacteria could be due to my essentially having replaced my entire bloodstream with nuclear-level antibiotics, although it's possible that the honey applications of the past few months may have helped (this was started based on peer-reviewed research, rather than some sort of new age-y idea, and the antibiotic qualities of honey are well known and documented. Apparently honey screws up certain antibiotic-resistant bugs' mechanism for resisting antibiotics.) Unfortunately, there are a couple of other bugs, and the pseudomonas is still in play, so I'm getting a new nuclear device cocktail of antibiotics for a while.

I'm also highly anemic, and have that more-and-more common issue of a vitamin D deficiency. Sunlight might help with the latter, but remember...I live in Arizona. Six months of the year, sunbathing leaves me, pasty white bloke, crispy-fried after fifteen minutes. I'm now in line for cancer screenings and a heart ultrasound as well, and possibly vascular surgery at some point.

So...that's part of my life at the present time. Amidst everything going on, I continue to climb Mount TBR. I'm presently working on Stephen King's Hearts In Atlantis (read impasively by William Hurt) and Frederick Pohl's The Best Of Frederik Pohl (I've also been dipping into Platinum Pohl, so I should stick that on the hind end of the lsit at some point.) Not on the list, as it's a library book, is The Astounding, The Amazing, And The Unknown by Paul Malmont, which I just finished -- I'd gotten halfway, and stopped, distracted. It's a great big shaggy dog story, a retro science fiction novel that brings together Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp, Lester Dent, Norville Page, Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, L. Ron Hubbard, and many others to tell a story involving the mystery of Tesla Wardenclyffe Tower, the Tunguska Incident, and the Philadelphia Experiment, amongst others. It's a breezy read, with some lovely references thrown in for those with a knowledge of the history of science fiction and science fiction fandom.

Watching my way through video material as well, bit by bit. I've got The Life And Legend Of Wyatt Earp: Season One and Cheyenne: Season One out from the library. The Wyatt Earp series is amusing, in that it's almost entirely fiction, with its starting point being Stuart N. Lake's heavily fictionalized biography of Earp. Particularly amusing is the depiction of Earp as a thoroughly morally upstanding man -- no drinking, no smoking, no foolin' around with women, no gambling, and he doesn't shoot to kill even when everybody else does. The real Earp, meanwhile, had no compunction about killing, was a professional Faro dealer in a number of places, drank, smoked, and was known to whore around from time to time. There were times in his career as a lawman, mind, that he tried to avoid killing people -- he much preferred to buffalo 'em...that is, brain the miscreant using the weight of his gun. Still, the series is moderately well done.
Link7 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

Writer's Block: Opposite Day [Jan. 25th, 2012|09:49 am]
[Tags|]

Who or what is your opposite?

View 385 Answers



I always joke that Stephen Fry is my evil twin, although that would, really, be me, as I have the beard.

My opposite? Would be pretty much every sociopathic/psychopathic Republican politician (in other words, pretty much all of them.)
Link2 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

Signal-boosting: Stop ACTA, the global sequel to SOPA/PIPA [Jan. 25th, 2012|12:12 am]
Originally posted by [info]box_in_the_box at Signal-boosting: Stop ACTA, the global sequel to SOPA/PIPA
Originally posted by [info]electricdruid:



ACTA in a nutshell:

What is ACTA? ACTA is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. A new intellectual property enforcement treaty being negotiated by the United States, the European Community, Switzerland and Japan, with Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Canada recently announcing that they will join in as well.

Why should you care about ACTA? Initial reports indicate that the treaty will have a very broad scope, and will involve new tools targeting "Internet distribution and information technology."

What is the goal of ACTA? Reportedly, the goal is to create new legal standards of intellectual property enforcement, as well as increased international cooperation, an example of which would be an increase in information sharing between signatory countries' law enforcement agencies.

Essential ACTA resources:
Say NO to ACTA. It is essential to spread awareness and get the word out on ACTA.

Via Tumblr:

LinkYeah, I got somethin' ta say

Heading for Kilimanjaro [Jan. 24th, 2012|11:41 pm]
[Tags|]

The details of the Mount TBR challenge here, with the original list of books.

So, being me, it looks like I'll be going for Mount Kilimanjaro now. I figure I might as well, as I made the mistake of getting started on James Patterson's London Bridges, which I blew through in wonderfully short order.

So.

41. James Patterson - London Bridges (audio)
42. Janet Evanovich - Plum Lucky (audio)
43. Frederik Pohl - The Best Of
44. Greg Palast - Vulture's Picnic
45. Charlotte MacLeod - Exit The Milkman
46. Charles De Lint - Medicine Road
47. Charles Stross - Halting State
48. J. G. Ballard - The Burning World
49. Nevada Barr - Endangered Species (audio)
50. Various - Dinosaur Fantastic (anthology)

Currently on deck: Killing Time by Caleb Carr (a woeful dystopian polemic; at a guess, Carr was taking a crack at a modern Verne, or a modern H.G. Wells -- the super-vehicle at the core of the story reminds me of the Nautilus, certainly, and Treassarian a mutant Nemo), Hearts In Atlantis by Stephen King (not engaging me so far, although the audiobook edition has some nice production elements), Marvel Essential Iron Man Vol. 1 (still making me wince), Greg Palast's Vulture's Picnic, which is quite the indictment of the modern capitalist world, and John Brunner's The Dramaturges Of Yan, about art that changes the universe if you're looking in the right direction.

Frederik Pohl's The Voices Of Heaven trotted along cheerfully enough to its good-natured end, proving once and for all that it's not one of Fred's books that I'll ever be moved to revisit.
LinkYeah, I got somethin' ta say

Writer's Block: Happy New Year of the Dragon! [Jan. 23rd, 2012|03:27 pm]
[Tags|]
[Needle Hits Groove |Be Bop Deluxe - Sister Seagull | Powered by Last.fm]

What is your Chinese zodiac animal?

View 1495 Answers



Fire Monkey, born in the Hour Of The Snake, if I remember it all correctly.
LinkYeah, I got somethin' ta say

Not every mountain, but the assault on Mount TBR continues [Jan. 21st, 2012|09:39 pm]
[Tags|]

Meter by bloody meter, page by bloody page! Working myself into the stack of books I said I'd read.

So far, so good, but it does need to pick up speed a bit. However, I'm well into Marvel Essential Iron Man Vol. 1 (and this is an effort, believe me, because some of the attitudes in these stories are woeful indeed -- although when I first read some of these stories, this didn't impinge; I was far too young), nearly done with Frederik Pohl's The Voices Of Heaven (unabridged audiobook), which is a less than stellar effort from him, and I've started on John Brunner's The Dramaturges Of Yan, which is a fairly short read, probably a bit over 55k word at a rough estimate, and that looks likely to be done soon.

I've also started reading Greg Palast's Vulture's Picnic, which is blood-curdling and sometimes hilarious, and started out the year with audio versions of five of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, read by a very vocally flexible actor.

I aso realize that I really need a more comfortable set-up in which to read. While I do like my bent-wood chair, perhaps a real recliner, or a nice padded armchair would serve me better.

Alright, back to the mountain!
Link3 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

SOPA Boycott (signal-boosted from [info]kadymae) [Jan. 21st, 2012|09:27 pm]
[Tags|, ]

Originally posted by [info]morgandawn at SOPA Boycott
For those of you wanting to participate in the upcoming Black March protest against Internet censoring legislation, but favor a more targeted approach: The SOPA Boycott:  Boycotting those companies that sponsored or supported SOPA and PIPA.  This allows participants to focus their efforts on larger companies and avoid harming indie artists and small businesses.

There are lists being pulled together to help focus the boycott efforts.  One is here. But near the top is a more compete list that also offers a  boilerplate script  you can use to contact the individual companies you will be boycotting, to let them know your opinion and that you will not support their company unless they rethink their position. And there even is an app to help you identify the companies and their products.

So whether you favor a total boycott or a targeted boycott, you can participate and you can tailor your level of participation.  We have the tools, the will and the strength to take a stand.

Note: the Business Software Alliance that represents a  large number of  software and hardware companies (Dell, Apple, Intuit, Adobe) withdrew its support in November, so keep in mind that the Google list is in process of being updated.



edited to add: name of the targeted campaign, along with a link to the Android app.
LinkYeah, I got somethin' ta say

Writer's Block: Winter vacation [Dec. 26th, 2011|04:18 pm]
[Tags|]

Share one thing you’d like to accomplish before the end of the year.

View 441 Answers



Get the lead out and start properly on the research and study phase for the symphony, with an eye to sketching out the first movement as the new years launches forth.
LinkYeah, I got somethin' ta say

I wonder if I could get BRIAN! BLESSED! to come along with me? [Dec. 4th, 2011|03:46 pm]
[Tags|]
[Needle Hits Groove |Leonard Cohen - [Dear Heather CD1 #01] Go No More A-Roving]



Inspired by [info]mongrelheart, who signed up for this communal attempt to reduce the size of the to-be-read book piles of the world, based at My Reader's Block.

Challenge Levels

Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Vancouver: Read 25 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Ararat: Read 40 books from your TBR piles/s
Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 50 books from your TBR pile/s
El Toro: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Everest: Read 100+ books from your TBR pile/s.

You can, if you wish, start with the lowest level and, if it seems likely, switch to a higher level. There is no switching down to a lower level, however. There's a few restrictions (no library loans, no ARCs, no re-reads, limitations on audiobooks), but it seems anything is game otherwise; see the main web site for details. There's no prize, except for the prize of seeing the TBR stacks and walls not grow like Topsy through the course of the year...well, growing less speedily, anyway, depending on your challenge level.

I considered starting with the Pike's Peak level myself, but I figure I can do a bit better than that, so I'm going for the Mt. Ararat level.

So, in the spirit of organizing myself for this, here's my forty books, in no particular order:

01) Stephen Fry - Making History
02) Caleb Carr - Killing Time
03) Frederik Pohl - The Voices Of Heaven
04) David Brin - Sundiver
05) Todhunter Ballard - High Iron
06) Dean Owen - Last Chance Range
07) D. B. Newton - Shotgun Guard
08) Alan LeMay - Thunder In The Dust
09) Eugene Cunningham - Riders Of the Night
10) L.L. Foreman - The Renegade
11) Lewis B. Patten - The Odds Against Circle L
12) Richard S. Prather - Lie Down, Killer
13) Cornell Woolrich - Fright
14) Richard Aleas - Songs Of Innocence
15) Richard S. Prather - Darling, It's Death
16) James A. Michener - The Bridges At Toko-Ri
17) Alan Ryan (ed.) - Vampires: two Centuries Of Great Vampire Stories
18) Janet Evanovich - Fearless Fourteen
19) James Kakalios - The Physics Of Superheroes
20) DC Showcase Presents Dial H For Hero
21) Edward S. Aarons - Assignment Cong Hai Kill
22) John Zakour - The Frost-Haired Vixen
23) DeCandido/Mack/York - Star Trek S.C.E. Book 6 Wildfire
24) Sharyn McCrumb - Bimbos Of the Death Sun
25) Ed McBain - Widows
26) Bradford Scott - Curse Of Texas Gold
27) John Brunner - The Dramaturges Of Yan
28) Shelby Foote - Shiloh
29) John Zakour & Lawrence Ganem - The Plutonium Blonde
30) Stephen Bly - Friends And Enemies
31) Stephen King - Hearts In Atlantis
32) The Essential Iron Man Vol. 1
33) Ellis Peters - The Funeral Of Figaro
34) Alan Paton - Cry, The Beloved Country
35) Marvel Essential Tomb Of Dracula Vol. 4
36) Alastair Reynolds - Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
37) Sandra McDonald - The Stars Down Under
38) Peter F. Hamilton - The Reality Dysfunction
39) David Toop - Ocean Of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound, And Imaginary Worlds
40) David Manning (Ed.) - Vaughan-Williams On Music

I reserve the right to substitute as I go along, he said with a grin, and I rather suspect this list will expand a little as a number of the entries on it are rather brief little things -- aside from the comics collections, which are black and white phonebooks, the largest entry on here is Peter F. Hamilton's The Reality Dysfunction.

Want to come along for the climb?
Link11 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

The things that you need to know you must first know to need [Nov. 26th, 2011|02:49 am]
[Tags|]
[Wait, I felt something! |crappycrappy]

I have Hulk pants.

Don't judge.
Link2 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

BAD Internet Laws Heading Your Way [Nov. 22nd, 2011|01:52 pm]
Originally posted by [info]write_light at BAD Internet Laws Heading Your Way

From the flist: 



Spread the word, even you're not a US citizen, it is important for everyone!! It easy to do and it can change everything. More info by clicking on the banner.

Website Blocking

The government can order service providers to block websites for infringing links posted by any users.

Risk of Jail for Ordinary Users

It becomes a felony with a potential 5 year sentence to stream a copyrighted work that would cost more than $2,500 to license, even if you are a totally noncommercial user, e.g. singing a pop song on Facebook.

Chaos for the Internet

Thousands of sites that are legal under the DMCA would face new legal threats. People trying to keep the internet more secure wouldn't be able to rely on the integrity of the DNS system.


Read this analysis from boing-boing.net

Get on the phone and call your representative. Express your disapproval. Tell him or her exactly how you feel, and that you don't support this. Tell your friends to call their representatives, their Congressperson, and complain. Mention that you are a registered voter that takes your civic responsibility seriously and that you will use that vote to express your feelings about this.

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_60/Internet-Companies-Boost-Hill-Lobbying-210345-1.html?pos=olobh

“We support the bill’s stated goals — providing additional enforcement tools to combat foreign ‘rogue’ websites that are dedicated to copyright infringement or counterfeiting,” the Internet companies wrote in Tuesday’s letter. “Unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action and technology mandates that would require monitoring of websites.”  The chamber-led coalition in support of the bill includes Walmart, Eli Lilly & Co. and Netflix.

Google and other opponents of the legislation argue that restricting the Internet in the U.S. sets a bad international precedent and that the language defines infringing too broadly.

SIGN AND FORWARD THESE PETITIONS

American Censorship
Whitehouse Petition
Fight For the Future
DemandProgress
Save the Internet

Link2 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

Comic Book Resources poll: Show your support for bringing back the Spider-Marriage! [Nov. 16th, 2011|12:30 am]
[Tags|]
[Needle Hits Groove |Sons Of Anarchy]

Originally posted by [info]box_in_the_box at Comic Book Resources poll: Show your support for bringing back the Spider-Marriage!
Comics Should Be Good: Do you prefer Spider-Man being single?
We're coming up on the four-year anniversary of Spider-Man's "Brand New Day."



So, what do you think, four years in — are you happier with Spider-Man being single or not?

Do you prefer the current single Spider-Man?
Just say "no," and let them know we want Mary Jane Watson-Parker back.

Link2 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

The Admiral is gone... [Oct. 29th, 2011|08:16 pm]
[Tags|, , ]

My friend Jens Altmann, long time best friend, who was so pleased at becoming a character in my Andromeda novel that he went in many places by the handle of Black13, killed himself on Thursday, October 27th.

Right now I don't even know what to say. I'm trying to believe that there was nothing I -- or anyone -- could have done, as Jens had a lot of anger, even more depression, and a tunnel-visioned pragmatism that increasingly saw no way out of what he considered the grinding waste of his life, but I know me, I know I'm going to assume some of the blame for this, be racking my brain to find the things I should have said, could have said, would have said if there'd been a chance. That's all hindsight, all bullshit. I don't think anyone could have stopped it from happening.

I'm sorry, Jens.
Link6 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

Another passing...Karma Dogma [Oct. 28th, 2011|02:28 pm]
[Tags|, ]



My beautiful goofy girl has gone on -- the romantic, mystical side wants to think she's reunited with kasey -- age catching up to her. While she slowed and slowed over a period of time, and I had plenty of forewarning that she was nearing the end of her life (she followed the same course as Ophelia, though less grumpily), the end was very sudden; she literally just pitched over sideways in the doorway. My options being limited -- I have no way to get her to Pima Animal Care before they close for the day, and I can't afford the pick-up fee now charged -- I dug out the raised bed that she'd loved to dig into, and laid her to rest there. Maybe later I'll plant some flowers.

So now I'm altogether alone here\, and missing her.
Link9 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

The Weasels Ate My Brain [Oct. 25th, 2011|06:46 pm]
[Tags|, ]
[Wait, I felt something! |discontentdiscontent]

So, there I was, having decided to remaster technodancevictim and rooting around for the WAV masters I needed, when it came to me that, hey, I already remastered it, and it's been out via Jamendo for some time now. *facepalms* Some days I wonder why I bother getting up.

So, after some cogitation, and while cobbling together all of the various music masters (and still no sign of "Crankin'", which is alarming) I've concluded that I should work on something else, and after considering one of the other sets that need remastering, figured it was time to put together an album's worth of the more experimental stuff -- the noise/drone/grind and such. It's either going to be called Music For Brain Weasels or Brain Weasel Music (there's an ongoing vote about this) and it'll include some of my more delightful (in a depressing grimy post-industrial sense) and unapologetically electronic efforts, though an occasional sense of humor pokes forth.

Planet9 by David Alexander McDonald
LinkYeah, I got somethin' ta say

Boosting the Signal: Mississippi Personhood Amendment [Oct. 15th, 2011|09:04 pm]
Originally posted by [info]box_in_the_box at Boosting the Signal: Mississippi Personhood Amendment
Previously posted by [info]bitemetechie at Boosting the Signal: Mississippi Personhood Amendment:

Mississippi is voting on Nov. 8 on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment." This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.

Putting aside the issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages.

Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.

What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats — including the Attorney General, Jim Hood — backing it.

If you sometimes pass on political action, make an exception on this one. The mainstream media is not reporting on it. If ever there's a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.

What to do?

• Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.

• If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.

• You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.

• Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.

LinkYeah, I got somethin' ta say

The Crow flies straight, a perfect line [Oct. 15th, 2011|03:13 am]
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Okay, [info]kadymae, it took me a while to get to taking a look at Sons Of Anarchy, but once I started on that first DVD, I was sucked in...and so it goes. I'm ploughing through a disc at a time, borrowing the DVDs from the library, and trying to avoid just sitting down and blowing through a season in a day. As the series is only in its fourth season, this would have been a short blast. This way works much better for me. There are some smart and fascinating choices made in this series, including the development of Katy Sagal's Gemma. So far it's good stuff, with some great performances, and I'm going to miss it quite a bit when it, and I, hit the end of the fourth season...at least until the fifth season.
Link3 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

That time of year again.... [Oct. 2nd, 2011|04:31 am]
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Yep, my birthday's in sixteen more days, on the 17th. So, with no further ado, here's my recently brutalized Amazon wishlist. I was prompted to take a look at it for the first time in ages, and there was a lot to delete. I had a secondary wishlist as well...that one I just deleted; that second list was created at kasey's request.

Things are generally just seeming so much less important these days. People more so. Tools, though, these are always useful, especially for creating...and even there, ultimately, I have me, as without me the tools serve no purpose. It's the people who provide the rationale...and sometime all it takes is a hammer, some nails, and some wood to make something of worth. So much of our stuff just clutters and clogs our lives, slowing us down, making things harder, making creativity a nightmare of navigation.

What do I want? Well, some of it's there on the list. What do I need? Same thing, some of it's there on the list. It may be true that what I most need and want is never going to be on that list...in one instance, this is certainly true.

Anyone who wants to extend my paid account for a while is welcome to do so, too. I may or may not be posting more. It might be good for me to do that, however.
Link8 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

RIP kasey [Aug. 16th, 2011|01:57 pm]
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The obit says "natural causes" but it was the tail end of a lengthy illness that she couldn't shake, and for all of her strength she was ultimately too fragile to keep fighting. For all that I wish I could have saved her one more time, she's perhaps in a better place, where there's no more nightmares, no more noise, no more reliving the pain she endured.

We might have been over for a while as a couple, but this still hurts, and I'm grieving.
Link10 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

Writer's Block: Friends 4 ever [Aug. 14th, 2011|01:07 am]
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We know you watch them (so do we)—what’s your favorite infomercial?

View 261 Answers



I do indeed have a best friend..several, really. Two who've been that for me for seven years, a couple who I've had as best friends for much longer. It's this sort of thing that makes me stop and think whenever I get down on myself. My oldest best friend dates back to, what, 1977? I can consider myself fortunate in some things.

ETA: What I thought I was answering: Do you have a best friend? How old is your friendship?
Link3 had somethin' ta say|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

Concrete it is, proven real, and yet the complaints will not cease [Jul. 13th, 2011|03:08 am]
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[Wait, I felt something! |tiredtired]
[Needle Hits Groove |Corigliano, John - Epilogue/Epilog]

A Dance With Dragons is finally here, after a long, long wait and the gradual dissolution of part of George RR Martin's fan base into rabid backbiting -- the impatience is understandable, but much of the behavior isn't, and that behavior has now gelled, with the release of the new book, into sniping and carping about whether or not Martin will have the next book done in what they consider to be a reasonable time, and predicting that he's going to die long before there's any hope of the series actually being finished. Quite annoying.

I have a copy, although I'm well spoiled by this point (a penalty of reading a great deal around the web), but I'm diving into it regardless -- the journey being more the point, really, than the waypoints reached on this rather long road. I read the first four books at some considerable speed, even A Feast For Crows, which I found rather tedious (happily, though, it also was absent any business to do with Daenerys, who I'd begun to find quite tedious; instead we had Brienne's story...which I found quite tedious by the time the book ended.) I don't know how long it'll take me to get through it; probably not long, as I'm a tenth into it so far...and then, of course, comes the waiting post-read.

I'm happy to note that I have managed to get two others reading the series avidly. Just think...if those two inculcate two apiece, and so forth, we'll end with George RR Martin conquering the world with words.

It should be noted that I am not lacking for other things to read -- the Friends Of Pima Public Library sales are good to me, even on bag days, so the accumulation of books here is growing quite impressive; I consider it fortunate that the next full-scale sale with a bag day is in October (there's supposed to be a Monsoon Sal with a bag day, but that would require me to be there before noon.) By then I might have read through a fair bit of the backlog.
Link1 said somethin'|Yeah, I got somethin' ta say

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