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11:35 am
james_nicoll
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/22865467/5045564) [Link] |
And warmer than the sun
Poll #1431512
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: AllWhich fusion reaction is more SFnal?
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10:07 am
james_nicoll
[Link] |
Testing, Testing
Poll #1431480
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: AllTanith Lee
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12:28 pm
storme
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/90965048/481143) [Link] | It is the weekend again!
In a couple of hours a friend-and-coworker from Bristol will be coming to stay with us. I think we're heading to a gig in Islington tonight, but I'm sort of fuzzy on the details. I really need to redye my hair (it's, um, sort of an interestingly streaky green/yellow now) but that probably won't happen before our guests leave. Ah well.
I've been rewatching OHSHC on my bus trip (my commute is actually long enough that I was able to rewatch all 26 episodes in one week this way, sigh). It is, if anything, *better* on rewatching. Much approval. The first handful of volumes of the manga are on order from amazon, because I am a nerd.
We have tickets to the Proms on Friday, for the first time ever - ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) huskyscotsman is a big Debussy fan, so he's very happy. I'd actually be interested in the second Prom on Saturday, I think, but of course that's sold out long since. We might go queue for standing tickets on the day; anyone done that before? Any tips beyond 'queue early'?
Tags: fangirl obsessiveness, hair, music, people, tv
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01:44 am
grimmwire
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/79208615/4300933) [Link] |
Off again
Departing tomorrow afternoon to southern Ontario and the celebration of my parent's 80th(!) birthdays. A big family gathering is planned, at a cottage in the beach community of Grand Bend. Should be a pleasant trip, though I'm likely to be disconnected from the Net until Wednesday or so. (Or maybe the cottage will have wifi; one can always hope.)
Part of me is going "But I just got home!" -- because last weekend I was in Burlington, Mass. (near Boston) for Readercon. It was a blast, as usual. Was very good to hang out with rosefox and sinboy, who I only get to see maybe twice a year. I'm not even going to try to list all the friends I saw and new people I met. Readercon is always bit cruel because there are just too many wonderful folks I'd like to spend time with, and so I have to content myself with merely saying "hi!" to most of them. At least some of you fine peeps will be coming up to Montreal for Worldcon, and I look forward to hanging with ya'll some more, real soon (less than three weeks from now!).
( Kirk Poland lurks behind the cut... )
I wish I had time to recount all the high points of the convention, but it's been a busy week and I still have to finish packing. But first I must offer many, many heartfelt thanks to Readercon's incredible ConCom for another job very well done. Here's to 20 more Readercons (at least)!
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11:26 pm
james_nicoll
[Link] |
Walter Cronkite (1916 -2009)
Walter Cronkite, the former CBS anchor known as the Most Trusted Man in America, has died. He was 92.
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10:41 pm
eveglass
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/61905555/4461610) [Link] |
Living together before marriage - what's your take?
I read a blog called the Art of Manliness, and there was a recent article about meeting your girlfriend's parents for the first time. (Caveat: Yes, I know the blog is geared towards men. Despite that, I find it often has a lot of really useful, gender-neutral advice. This particular article happens to be male-centric.)
I seem to have got into a mini-fight with someone in the comments section about whether it's advisable to live with your partner before marriage, and I was wondering if any of my readers felt like weighing in on it. (Here, of course, not on Art of Manliness.)
( Relevant part of the post and the comments exchange here -- only three )
That said, does anyone have any thoughts, one way or the other? Living together before marriage: yay or nay?
Tags: link, philosophical
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09:54 pm
thothmeister
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/72254172/356892) [Link] |
A Legend Gone
Walter Cronkite Dies
He lived a very long time (92), but I don't see anyone else ever coming along like him.
Current Location: home (Montreal)
Current Mood:  sad
Tags: walter cronkite
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09:18 pm
eveglass
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/61905355/4461610) [Link] |
STM mess-up update
Some of you might remember how the STM overcharged me by $137 and how I was having trouble getting it refunded.
Well, I checked my account balance and it has been refunded. So that's that. Hopefully it's the same for anyone else who had the same problem.
Tags: montreal
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07:59 pm
true_nexus
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/56846182/697045) [Link] |
From The "Happy Birthday Kid" Dept.
Well, it's really "tomorrow" but I know it's "today" for her.
So Happy Birthday to my good friend crassy!!
In honour of her birthday I'm wearing Marks & Spencer underwear that she gave me!!
Huzzah!!
nex
Tags: mylife
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07:19 pm
sorceror
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/1663182/555503) [Link] | From curtana:
In other news, I have managed to pay off my credit card bills, and may still have enough money to buy food until my next paycheque. Yay!
Current Mood:  romantic
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04:35 pm
james_nicoll
[Link] |
Unpersoning books on the Kindle
Think you own the books you buy for the Kindle?
Pointed out on rasfw.
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03:36 pm
james_nicoll
[Link] |
A Nice bit of animation
[A]ll hell breaks loose just after the chronometer reaches 878 million years.
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12:49 pm
james_nicoll
[Link] |
The pump house
It was a cylindrical affair set into the ground. Accessing the pump required using a ladder (although I think as a kid I could climb in and out without much trouble).
Since it was underground, sometimes it would get flooded (I think there was a drain - in fact there had to have been one - but it must have gotten plugged from time to time). The water was sometimes salt-contaminated, I guess if the problem with the drain was ice-related.
The pump was also prone to freezing up in the winter and when that happened someone would have to climb down into the pump house to thaw it [1].
The fuse box came free of the wall early on and hung on its wires. We propped it up with a shovel handle.
There was no light.
1: My memory is that there was a specific small part that would freeze up and all we needed to do was heat that bit up.
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12:28 pm
james_nicoll
[Link] |
I can't be the only one
When Nova talked about the possibility that Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rockets could get to Mars in 39 days, I immediately wondered how many days it would take a VASIMR to get a payload to Jupiter or Saturn...
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11:56 am
james_nicoll
[Link] |
Dr. Franklin Chang Díaz
World record holding astronaut, plasma scientist and president of an advanced-technologies rocket company.
Hmmm. You can probably toss in "poster child for America as a magnet for talented people."
The only thing that keeps him from being an Analog protagonist (or at least a hard SF protagonist) is that he limits himself to technology that could actually work.
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11:52 am
jenunderscore_
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/77347877/6234697) [Link] |
zzzZZZZzzzZZZzz <--- chainsaw
I couldn't fall asleep last night, and then for some strange reason woke up at 8am and couldn't fall back asleep again. After I finally did, one of our neighbours decided to break out his chainsaw. He'd start and stop which was extra annoying. THEN, he decided to sweep his driveway.... shhh shhhshhhshhhshhh shhh shhhshhhshhh shhh shhh shhhshhh shhh
I know I know... woe is me. But man, was that ever annoying...
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11:49 am
james_nicoll
[Link] |
An unexpected but plausible connection
A great-uncle of Rosalyn Carter was one of the original Confederados.
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10:57 am
james_nicoll
[Link] |
Name plausibility question for the SF fans
If you came across the name Dr. Franklin Chang Diaz in a book (as, I don't know, a record holding astronaut/cutting edge plasma rocket expert), would you believe it was plausible or is it too H. Beam Piperish self-consciously multi-cultural, like Alberto Fujimori or Jessica Oyelowo?
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10:32 am
james_nicoll
[Link] |
In the spirit of handicapping the Grandmasters
Who would you like to see considered for next year's Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award?
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08:47 am
eveglass
[Link] |
Update on The SCA Without Breaking the Bank
I have put an announcement up on The SCA Without Breaking the Bank that the content will be migrating over to Home of the Pocket Bard after Pennsic. I don't have time to do it before Pennsic, but I'll make an all-out effort to have everything transferred over before Geocities goes kaput in late October. I will also be transferring over my various journals (Europe, March of the Living, London, Pennsic).
The Procrastinator's Aid will die a quiet death. I haven't updated it in seven years and don't foresee doing so at any point in the near future. If you want anything from The Procrastinator's Aid site, now's the time to go claim it.
Tags: computers, link
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06:07 pm
eveglass
[Link] |
A Pennsic mystery solved, a year later
Some of you have read my Pennsic diary from last year. Those with really, really good memories might remember that on the middle Sunday, I witnessed a group of people dancing and holding horns, all while accompanied by violins. I had no idea what it was. That was, pretty much, where the matter stood, except that I left an entreaty on the journal page for anyone with more information to contact me.
Today, nearly a full year later, I got an answer. Countess Branwyn ferch Gwythyr of AEthelmearc witnessed the same thing a few years ago and tells me it's the "Abbots Bromley Horn Dance," which is a traditional English dance that may date back as far as the 11th century or more.
So there you have it! One small Pennsic mystery revealed. I'll be looking for them again this year, if I think of it. If you're going to Pennsic, you should be on the lookout for it, too!
Tags: pennsic
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03:51 pm
james_nicoll
[Link] |
Weekly column?
So has Card given up on Civilization Watch or is he just not updating its links to his site?
Tags: memetic prophylactic recommended
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03:25 pm
james_nicoll
[Link] |
What I learned visiting a farm near Plattsville
Some muskrats will wait until a human is within about half a foot of its hiding place to run.
We have coyotes in the area now (And, I am told, opossums).
Farms get garbage pick-up now. I can't express what a pain in the ass dealing with garbage was for us, mostly because my father hit on what had to be the least efficient way of managing it. We had a little enclosed lot where the garbage bags got stored and once or twice year we kids would gather it up (the bags having long since rotted) and it would be dragged off to the dump.
I still have a scar on my foot from stepping on a cat food tin lid.
Why didn't we rent a dumpster? Why didn't we use a front-end loader - which lots of our neighbors had - to load the garbage onto a trailer? Why didn't we do weekly trips to the dump, given that my dad drove by it as often as twice per day? Well, that was Bill. He had a solution and since he wasn't there picking up the garbage, there wasn't a lot of incentive to find a different solution.
Don't get me started on our pump house.
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02:59 pm
xipetotec
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/53197684/591794) [Link] | "Sears Tower now named Willis Tower. Surely there is a joke somewhere in here, if only we knew what they were talking about"
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02:42 pm
derspatchel
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/55518573/1141486) [Link] |
I DON'T KNOW, THEY JUST GAVE ME THIS RED LINE TRAIN
This one came about in between sporadic fits of work today, and is dedicated to the general manager of the MBTA (currently in some undisclosed location on unpaid furlough.) This version is edited slightly from the original version on Universal Hub, because I am picky that way. It is a folk song, of course, so please direct any questions or comments about awkward scansion to your mom.
DANNY ON THE MBTA
Let me tell you a story about a man named Danny
Who is tragic in his own way
He drives down the highway in his Sport Utility
To run the whole MBTASo will he ever succeed? No, he'll never succeed
Why did Fate pick him to lead?
He will soon go bankrupt 'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who'll never succeed Danny said "I've got an idea for a brand-new train route
And we'll call it the Silver Line!"
But when it was completed all we got were buses
And a busted electrical sign
Danny heads on down to the Alewife Station
Every day at quarter past four
And somewhere on the tracks he goes and breaks a signal
"Cause commutes should take a few hours more!"
Danny answers all complaints, except the ones from bloggers
And pretends that he really cares
And then he assures us he will solve our problems
By cutting service and raising the fares
O ye citizens of Boston, don't you think it's a scandal
How the people have to pay and pay?
Demand brand-new leaders and full transparency!
And bring respect back to the MBTA!And will we ever succeed? We might someday succeed
And get someone who's fit to lead
But until that day comes, we're all stuck 'neath Boston
So thank the man who'll never succeed.
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