...These circumstances are leading to the emergence of a new society whose members will disproportionately be descended from parents who rejected the social tendencies that once made childlessness and small families the norm. These values include an adherence to traditional, patriarchal religion, and a strong identification with one's own folk or ( Read more... )

Today I went to the dentist for the second time in two weeks. I was in need of potentially two fillings but it actually only wound up being one. Last week I got the $$$ from the sale of a signed, limited edition Frank Herbert novel that I'd put on consignment some months back. The income from the sale almost exactly paid for the cost of the ( Read more... )

Le JobYesterday I queried a few schools of interest to get more information about positions they'd listed and one replied this morning with a helpful response. I was happy to see it, as I've been floundering the last day or so over just which job to apply for next. There's a whole passel of them out there for the taking, but I just wasn't sure ( Read more... )

Last week I read a great little article by T.M. Wright about rewriting. In it he discusses his own compulsion to rewrite stories (and other pieces), arguing it springs from a desire to perfect the imperfectible. He has some interesting things to say about a topic that usually seems to come down to Glorious First Drafts versus Gloriously ( Read more... )

Mr. Cheney gets firm about rogue nations with the ability to use nuclear force irresponsibly. Iran will not, sez Cheney, have a nuclear weapon. Nope, no nuclear weapons should be allowed to rogue nations.

Yesterday I finally got around to watching Fire & Ice, a 1983 animated move directed by Ralph Bakshi (he of rotoscoping and early Lord of the Rings movie fame), with artwork by Frank Frazetta. It was on many levels a joy to watch, and I'm glad I bought it. There were vile sorceresses, cities swallowed by jungles, gloriously near-naked captives of ( Read more... )

This has been a weird day. I was assaulted by a patron (survived), offered a job (not going to take), actually shushed some patrons (it worked), went to Dick's (tasty), and just had odd things happen all day ( Read more... )

Having a Hell of a time writing this morning. Yesterday I got off an app I've been taking special care over, so I determined today would be an all-writing day. Last night and this morning I made the mistake of reading some of Caitlin R. Kiernan's short stories. A mistake, I tell you! Her style is consistent and coherent in a way that's both ( Read more... )

Today my friend and fellow LIS-keteer mad_eponine made this multi-point post. In it, he discussed a program I'd never heard of called Home Typist. This beautiful, wonderful, FANTASTIC little .exe adds sounds to your typing. Each keystroke translates to a sound, and you can choose the sound scheme: Morse, ICQ, or typewriter. Others are available for ( Read more... )

Alas for Don Knotts... I actually never watched most of what other people seem to remember him for, though I saw Three's Company often enough as a child. One of the things in which I remember him best was The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. I seem to remember watching it often on TBS during my childhood... And, of course, let not the Don Knotts episode ( Read more... )