Untitled, for now

: doc_lemming; November 24th, 13:48

A spam letter saying that the money is compensation for spam scam victims.

Good way to preselect your targets, huh?

Old address books, Yahoo contacts, and phone books.

: doc_lemming; November 24th, 8:55

I don't use Yahoo mail very often. I mean, mail to the LiveJournal account goes there and a couple of people use it to communicate with me, but mostly I use it for RPG mailings, so it receives a lot of stuff from RPGNow and DriveThru.com and things like that.

I had occasion to look at the contact list in it recently. I used to use it more often, when I moderated some Yahoo Groups, and you know what? It's been over ten years. I can generally assign the names to a group, but even the names I recognize, most of them have probably moved on.

This is why the phone book was such a good idea, and why it caught on. A single updated place for people to get addresses and phone numbers? Brilliant!

It's unlikely to happen with email and cell phones: the geographic monopolies of the telephone companies permitted that kind of central database, and email and cell phone providers do not have monopolies.

Let me just delete most of those names on the contact list....

Tags: computers

Hmmm. Mice.

: doc_lemming; November 20th, 14:14

We have a mouse problem right now, exacerbated by the fact that certain people of the ten-year-old boy variety leave the garage open while they gallivant around with scooters and skateboards and what have you. I've found four of the wee beasties and there's evidence of a fifth (namely the bait on one mousetrap got removed but the trap didn't go off).

Any recommendations on mousetrap brands? Not the sticky paper, please; I've been bitten by a mouse on that who was still alive. I'm currently using el cheapo Victor mousetraps from Canadian Tire, but they don't go off every time and they have a tendency for the bait platform to fall off while the trap is carried empty.

Good old movies that haven't aged

: doc_lemming; November 20th, 10:15

So I was mentioning the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid idea at the breakfast table and my children (ten and fourteen) looked at me as if I had an extra head, or maybe a mouth in the middle of my chest if you want to get all mythological. And of course, they've never seen Butch Cassidy or The Sting or The Maltese Falcon. Heck, we had to buy Star Wars so that they had seen it.

But movies are creations of their times. I wouldn't force a teenager to watch Val Lewton's Cat People now (the soundstages are too obvious). I loved The Stunt Man but parts of it are very late seventies/early eighties, and I wouldn't make my kid watch All That Jazz, even though I loved it (of course, she doesn't particularly like movies with sex in them: love is okay, but sex is not--kinda like my wife at fourteen). I might make them watch Singin' In The Rain. And, of course, I often run into movies that I loved then and embarrass me now.

(For him, old movies often have a racism in them that makes me exclude them. I don't want to explain those details yet--in another couple of years I will have to do it. Certainly he has not talked about ever running into prejudice, but that day will come. I'm just grateful that he hasn't run into it yet, or hasn't noticed it.)

What (good old) movies can you think of that are still watchable, if you're a modern teenager? (Why, yes, she will be at a New Moon screening this weekend.)

Idea du jour

: doc_lemming; November 18th, 12:44

After following a link over on

James Nicoll's LJ, I read this:

"Now, a system which has sentient and intelligent but not technologically advanced people could be ridden roughshod over, precisely because they do not have the technology for successful defence."

...And it makes me want to write a story in which the other side wins because they're native to the environment and we don't understand all of the details.

Ars Memoriae promotion update

: doc_lemming; November 13th, 10:16

Not much, just to say that it hasn't arrived yet and I don't expect it until next week, the mail being notoriously slow at international shipments. However, once it arrives I will review and photograph it.

And that makes me the stop for those who want to read the book but are too late to get it elsewhere.

So the rules are, as Beth has already stated: Once I post the review, first person to post a comment gets the book, providing they fulfill the requirements:

in North America (that requirement's mine)
willing to read the book and post in a timely fashion a review and photo on your blog/LiveJournal
willing to pass the book along under the same conditions

Snippet

: doc_lemming; November 11th, 14:32

I just found this; I can't remember why or to what prompt. Obviously it's a groping at a story beginning.

* * *

For me, UFO stood for Unobtainable Female Object.

I fell in lust with Ellen the first time I saw her at the UFO club, fell in like within a week (when I wasn't blinded by lust), but I fell in love with her after about three months.

It could have been worse: I could have fallen in love with a paranormal investigator, where my naturally-skeptical nature would not have fit in at all. As it was, I became the team's Resident Skeptic, where my knowledge of scientific phenomena and amateur magic came in useful.

Not that Ellen cared. I was stuck in the Friend Zone, and she dated other guys.

Hey. I'm still alive

: doc_lemming; November 11th, 9:08

Illness and work have taken their toll, but I am still alive, and think I see a light in the tunnel. (Which might be an oncoming train, but oh well...)

Here, have an idea du jour: In fantasy and occult stories, wizards or magic workers sometimes call up angels or demons or ifrits or beings that answer their questions or do their bidding.

But what's it like from the other side? Is it just a job--"Oh, sorry, Abderax, I'm being summmoned; we'll finish the card game later"--or an honor--"I have sprinkled my True Name throughout the mortal realm but now, in the bathtub, now am I called, undressed for the occasion"--or just a risk of living in that realm? "You hear about Liarthen? Yeah. Takin' his kid to the Human museum and bam! He got summoned. I told him, you go telling your True Name to every relationship you have and this is gonna happen." Of course, the summoned one doesn't have to be a demon: maybe some other species summons humans....

Tags: idea du jour, ideas

A different kind of dungeon generator

: doc_lemming; October 1st, 9:14

I was creating adventures for preteenage boys and I got mentally tired, so I did this. Credit where it's due: I got three of the dungeon reasons from Christian Kennig and Grum, over on the Dungeon Slayers board, and several of the terms in opposition come from the D20 Modern Adventure Generator that Gareth Michael-Skarka did. Die rolls are on a 1d10. ( actual generator behind the cut, and pasted from MS-Word as RTF so it needs cleanup! )

Tags: rpg

Yay! A royalty day!

: doc_lemming; September 30th, 15:13

By which I mean I received a token amount of royalties for a book I wrote years ago.

The amount is so small that my wife doesn't even insist it go on the household account. (It will anyway.)

Hmmm...well, a good description

: doc_lemming; September 29th, 13:02

...so I think I have to take a look at this: Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest. Something described as a steampunk-airship-zombie story deserves at least a look.

And in other news, the sainted Beth Bernobich has a PDF extract from her upcoming book Ars Memoriae right here. (The link goes straight to the PDF.) Enamoured as I am of anything even tangentially or conceptually related to John Dee, I will probably have to read that too. You go, Ms. Bernobich!

Banned Book Week

: doc_lemming; September 29th, 9:19

And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman. Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<li') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

This week (September 26 to October 3) is Banned Book Week, by whomever decides these things. So do yourself a favour and read a banned book. (You might have already: the list includes things like Charlotte's Web and Lord of the Rings.) Here are the top ten most frequently banned books for 2008, as reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom (and I got all of these from the ALA, at <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/21stcenturychallenged/2008/index.cfm">this site</a>):
<ol><li>And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group</li><li>His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman. Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence</li><li>TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle. Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group</li><li>Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz. Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence</li><li>Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya. Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence</li><li>The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky. Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group</li><li>Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar. Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group</li><li>Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen. Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group</li><li>The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group</li><li>Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper. Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group</li></ol>

While I see some merit to the argument that parents should control the entertainment of children--I was certainly surprised at the language of Raiders of the Lost Ark when I watched it again with my children--I also don't agree with banning books. Let the parents control what the kids see, not the libraries. The enforcement here is happening at the wrong level.

By the way, <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm">this page</a> lists the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century; 42 of them are in bold, which means they have been banned or challenged somewhere in the US.

As for me...well, I notice I've only read one of the top ten. I got me some reading to do. <div class="zemanta-pixie"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" alt="" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=d778b048-5fb2-87f2-b913-0aa3b574a1e0" /></div>

MZB

: doc_lemming; September 25th, 8:38

I just read Stephen Goldin's pages about Marion Zimmer Bradley. Eww. I didn't know about any of this.

I have a copy of Mists of Avalon sitting around but I think now I'm not going to get around to reading it. I might even get rid of Hunters of the Red Moon, which I have around here somewhere.

This is a case where knowing the author's private life influences me. (You dress like a bear and like to do it on a trapeze? Fine. You are involved in child molestation? Not fine.)

Eww.

Things Not To Say

: doc_lemming; September 22nd, 8:10

...in the ancient Greek world:

"Hi, Medea, how're the kids?"

Tell me about CPAP machines

: doc_lemming; September 21st, 11:26

I had a sleep test last night (which explains why I'm discombobulated today), and apparently I'm "semi-urgent" -- which in practical terms means they'll do the results between the really urgent folks and those who aren't urgent. (I should have asked if they use a three-point scale.)

I don't particularly want to wear a mask--if I have to wear a mask--but I'm curious. How long have you had one, and how do you find sleeping in it?

Science news: A tinier, more peaceful T. rex

: doc_lemming; September 21st, 9:56

What's interesting to me about this is that I have often heard T. rex held up as an example of adaptation to a large size, and the presence of many identifying traits in a small ancestor means that particular conclusion was incorrect. (I would like to wave the article at certain profs, and at Ben Bova who used that argument in a version of his book about writing science fiction stories.)

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090918_raptorex

Not a review: A Darkness Forged In Fire and The Spellman Files

: doc_lemming; September 21st, 8:58

I'm about five pages from the end of the first Iron Elves book--recommended to me by

bonniers--and as a reader I have a pair of comments, followed by a rambling discussion. I don't know if there will be any real conclusion--I'm just thinking out loud.

( okay, the rambling and thinking is behind a cut )

Busy week

: doc_lemming; September 17th, 13:17

U2 last night, West Side tomorrow night, a wedding, very busy.

Here's a thought, though: Wayne and Shuster doing A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum with H. P. Lovecraft as the gag writer; call it, A Crazy Thing Happened On The Way To The Asylum.

(Oh, I know about (but haven't listened to) A Shoggoth On The Roof, and they did it first and better. But I like the idea.)

When zombies attack!

: doc_lemming; September 9th, 12:04

If you ever needed the math...

When Zombies Attack!

Howdy, again

: doc_lemming; September 8th, 8:17

Back from vacation. And what do I find? Tiny lasers!

Nanolaser news

Also, the Brant Conservation Area isn't bad--we liked it, but the camping section was kind of like a low-rent version of the local trailer park, Green Acres. The pool was nice (if freezing cold to me), and the canoeing and biking were lovely.

Wildlife seen: garter snake, five herons, eighteen frogs, twenty fisherman, six other canoeists, hordes of tent caterpillars--really, Brantford is having an invasion--birds I can't identify, and what I think was a mink (though that last was in Kitchener, near the Sunrise Centre). The ears make it a mink, not a marten or fisher, and I can put water nearby, but I thought that water was stagnant, which would make the mink identification less likely.

Previous 20

doc_lemming

Untitled, for now

Being musings, observations, and other commonplaces

Advertisement