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11/9/09 06:38 pm
Getting this out of my head here in LJ as it will post to my FB notes. I know I have barely posted here, I find the fly-by-night nature of FB currently is more suited to how I can operate. But I will try to be better for longer things.
November:
This past weekend was US time due to our anniversary. And we spent time on the house.
Next weekend is chock full of con stuff (both days) so Friday evening will be devoted to prepping for that.
Third weekend is a little more con stuff (including Friday), a big event for two dear friends and then packing for the trip down south.
We're going to my Sister's in Oceanside for Turkey Day (Since she and I have not had a Turkey Day together in over a decade). And then that weekend is LosCon at the LAX Marriott. It's also the 6 month out mark for BayCon and the just under 3 month out mark for PantheaCon. Really, I am NOT panicking.
December:
The first weekend is some con planning stuff (again both days) and one friends birthday and another friends anniversary. Not that I expect to be doing stuff with either of them specifically, more of a mental note to myself.
Second weekend is the beginning of Hannukah and possibly some con related holiday stuff.
Third weekend is Mother's Night with a friend (I get to use my new chocolate mold that makes skeleton keys) and Yule (I figure there will be some wandering caroling in there somewhere if I don't get a cold AGAIN this year and can actually be outside singing).
And then Christmas, which is just far enough out that I am not quite thinking about it... yet.... but I know it's there. I just wish we had a house where WE could host people. I get so tired of no tree, and no holiday time at home, and having to impose on others. I keep telling myself "someday" but with each passing year I believe it less and less.
January:
It looks like New Years will be up at Greyhaven, which we have not managed to attend in a couple of years. And 12/31 is a Blue Moon on top of it so it could be a lovely night. And then later that weekend more con stuff since PantheaCon is President's Day weekend.
That's it for now. Off to play Wiz 101 for a bit.
Current Music: Cruz playing Wizard 101 in the other room
11/10/09 01:50 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/8351437.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8351437.stm The US Supreme Court rejects a final appeal, and the man behind the Washington sniper attacks faces execution on Tuesday.
11/10/09 12:54 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/8351424.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8351424.stm About a million pushchairs made by Maclaren USA are recalled in the US amid reports of children's fingertips being cut off.
11/10/09 01:14 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/8351032.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8351032.stm A US Army major who is suspected of killing 13 people at a military base has regained consciousness, hospital sources say.
11/10/09 01:14 am
http://www.oed.com/cgi/display/00313304?rss=1 Today's word from the OED has the following earliest quotation: 1852 Sci. Amer. 31 July 362 The vessel is..tightly covered over with a sheet of porous paper, as in Mohr's process, whilst above is placed a stout paper cap which exactly fits the sides of the vessel.
11/9/09 05:00 pm
I just found out. Can someone please fill me in on what happened?
Be brave, my love. The time has come,
to cross the Tintagel sea.
The fragrant air, the apple blossoms
have all been beckoning.
And there we'll stand...
Looking out upon the world that we've known.
All fear... will be gone.
When we reach the shores of
Avalon.
-from "The Shores of Avalon" by Tina Malia
11/9/09 06:24 pm
BEEP BEEP BEEP
Me: Beloved, did you just run a stud finder over your leg and have it go off?
Husband: Yes ma'am, I did.
It's wonderful to keep finding reasons to have married the one you did.
11/9/09 11:32 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/europe/8351673.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8351673.stm World leaders marking the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall say the fight against injustice around the world must continue.
11/9/09 10:48 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/8351651.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8351651.stm President Suleiman of Lebanon announces the formation of a national-unity cabinet - five months after a general election.
11/9/09 10:37 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/8351616.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8351616.stm A Canadian teenager is rescued from a drifting ice floe in the Arctic, after being stranded with two polar bears while snowmobiling.
11/9/09 11:19 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/business/8351686.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8351686.stm US shares hit a 13-month high and stock markets in Europe jump after the G20 pledged to keep supporting the global economy.
11/9/09 03:30 pm
Back in May, I posted about the damage that a bad cover can do to a good book. You can view the original post (and ensuing discussion) here. The consensus at the time was that having a bad cover sucks, and that if your book's cover is bad, it will probably impact the sales of the book. Not exactly rocket science, but still, it's a good thing to think about, especially since—as authors—very few of us have control over our own book covers, so it's good to be prepared to do damage control.
Recently, I got a look at the cover for an upcoming book in an urban fantasy/paranormal romance series That Shall Not Be Named, because I try to be polite like that. For purposes of discussion, we're going to call it An Armchair to Remember, book three in the Ikeamancer series. Our main character, Casey Carpenter, has inherited the family gift for communicating with furniture. Naturally, she uses this power to fight crime, since she doesn't really have anything else to do with her time.
On the cover of the first book, Cushioning the Blow, Casey was pictured as described in the text: reasonably pretty but not going to be anybody's new super-model, with dark hair that needs styling, a wardrobe that looks like it could handle her daily duties as a general manager at Ikea, and a few iconic items in the background. On the cover of the second book, From Desk 'Til Dawn, she was drawn slightly differently, but still believably the same character. Same basic styling, attitude, etc.
On the cover of An Armchair to Remember, she looks like a seventeen-year-old Goth hooker. Please join me in saying, um, what the hell?
Now, I understand that characters will look slightly different from cover to cover. Toby looks a little bit different on the covers of Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, and An Artificial Night...but these differences are, at least from my perspective, still allowably within the range of "this character is Toby." It's the variance between a picture of Alice drawn by Mimi and a picture of Alice drawn by Bill—they look different, but she's still clearly Alice Price-Healy, getting ready to kick your ass. You can draw the same character within a range and still have it believably stand for the same individual.
The cover for An Armchair to Remember isn't doing that. In fact, if I didn't know the book (the theoretical book), I'd guess that we were looking at the first in a spin-off series starring Casey's ironically trampy-campy younger sister, Carrie, who communicates with clothing and manages a Hot Topic in the mall. It doesn't look a thing like Casey. Casey wouldn't be caught dead in that outfit. It is, essentially, the equivalent of sticking Toby in a mini-skirt and push-up bra for the cover of Late Eclipses, after giving her a bleach job and some serious makeup.
How jarring is this for you? How likely are you to pick up An Armchair to Remember when it looks so different from the other books in the series—when the main character looks so different? Is this going to make you look elsewhere, or do you not care by the time you get to the third book in a series? What about new readers? If this was the first volume you'd seen, would you buy book one after digging it out of the back catalog? Inquiring minds (namely, me) want to know.
Current Music: Girlyman, "Hold It All At Bay."
11/9/09 09:32 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/8351032.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8351032.stm A US Army major who is suspected of killing 13 people at a military base has regained consciousness, hospital sources say.
11/9/09 09:58 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8344841.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8344841.stm A controversial penalty by Steven Gerrard salvages a 2-2 draw for Liverpool as their faltering season continues against Birmingham at Anfield.
11/9/09 07:44 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport1/hi/cricket/8350264.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/8350264.stm New Zealand weather a remarkable innings from Pakistan tail-ender Mohammad Aamer before clinching the one-day series decider in Abu Dhabi.
11/9/09 03:28 pm
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2009/11/09/all_sparkles_all_the_time.html I don't really know what came over me when it came to this sparkle yarn, but I'm a smidge obsessed. (I know. It's so unlike me.) It came into our local shop a few weeks ago, just one skein in...
11/9/09 09:11 pm
http://wendyknits.net/2009/11/09/bittersweet-socks-pattern/ http://wendyknits.net/?p=5168 You might recall the Bittersweet Socks pattern that I designed for the Dye Dreams Four Seasons Sock Club. 
I designed this to be their November sock, and it is now available. (As I write this, the Dye Dreams website seems to be down, but check back there if you are interested.) This past weekend I did my annual trip down to Graves Mountain for a weekend of fun with friends A photo mosaic of Graves Mountain: 
1. IMG_0535, 2. IMG_0536, 3. IMG_0537, 4. IMG_0538, 5. IMG_0539, 6. IMG_0540, 7. IMG_0541, 8. IMG_0542, 9. IMG_0543, 10. IMG_0544, 11. IMG_0545, 12. IMG_0546, 13. IMG_0547, 14. IMG_0548, 15. IMG_0551, 16. IMG_0550, 17. IMG_0552, 18. IMG_0556, 19. IMG_0576, 20. IMG_0577 A photo mosaic of Kid Hollow farm, where we visited on Saturday: 
1. IMG_0557, 2. IMG_0558, 3. IMG_0559, 4. IMG_0560, 5. IMG_0561, 6. IMG_0562, 7. IMG_0563, 8. IMG_0564, 9. IMG_0565, 10. IMG_0566, 11. IMG_0567, 12. IMG_0568, 13. IMG_0569, 14. IMG_0570, 15. IMG_0571, 16. IMG_0572, 17. IMG_0573, 18. IMG_0574, 19. IMG_0575 And a photo mosaic of a parade of classic cars that arrived at Graves Mountain yesterday: 
1. IMG_0579, 2. IMG_0580, 3. IMG_0581, 4. IMG_0582, 5. IMG_0583, 6. IMG_0584, 7. IMG_0585, 8. IMG_0586, 9. IMG_0587, 10. IMG_0588, 11. IMG_0589, 12. IMG_0590, 13. IMG_0591, 14. IMG_0592, 15. IMG_0593, 16. IMG_0594, 17. IMG_0595, 18. IMG_0596 And this is the little bundle of purrs that was waiting for me when I arrived home yesterday afternoon: 
 
11/9/09 06:31 pm
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/for-those-who-read-this-blog-for.html posted by Neil
 (Serena Altschul and some author in July, sitting on the trampoline after two days of interviews. None of which, oddly enough, were done on the trampoline.) Mr. Neil,
I DVR'd yesterday's installment of Sunday Morning and after zipping through it back and forth multiple times cannot seem to find you, though the description indicated the correct episode. Was it bumped to next week? Have you been sucked into an alternate Neil-less universe?
A concerned reader,
MaryI'm afraid it was bumped by the Fort Hood Massacre. I checked: The profile CBS did of me is apparently still going out, probably some time in December, although no-one seems certain when. I was told that we could help ensure that it is broadcast (and possibly make it come out sooner than December) if CBS think people would actually like to see it. Which means that if you do want to see it, you can help the process along if you write or email CBS and (politely) tell them so: ADDRESS: CBS News Sunday Morning Box O (for Osgood) 524 West 57th St. New York, NY 10019 E-MAIL: sundays@cbsnews.com ...
My friend Steve Brust (a fine and brilliant novelist) wrote to Miss Manners about his financial issues, and what having a Donate button on a website means. She replied to him here. There's a fascinating conversation going on about it at his website that I initially missed because I was in China... Most people disagree with Miss Manners. Even I disagree with Miss Manners, and I don't have a Donate button, or use the Amazon links to generate revenue, or have advertising or anything. (That's because Harper Collins set up this website, and they pay for our bandwidth and such. If they stopped, I'd have to think about ways to make it pay for itself.) ...
Stephen King's UNDER THE DOME was one of my favourite books of the year so far. (R. Crumb's retelling of the Book of Genesis is my very favourite book of the year.) So I was pleased to be sent this link to a really wonderful Stephen King poem:
(It's published by Playboy, which means that for some of you the site may be blocked.)
(Needless to say, I only read the New Yorker for the articles.) ...
Dear Neil Gaiman, I ask for half-a-moment of your time (I would not presume to ask for more). This Spring 2010 I am teaching a Topics in Literature class on YOU at Winona State University (Eng 225: Neil Gaiman). Easy enough to select representative novel (American Gods), short stories (Fragile Things), children and YA (Graveyard Book), but here's the rub: I will likely only assign one Sandman graphic novel to students. I have been debating which is most representative, most worthy of inclusion, most amenable to class discussion and student scholarship. Then I thought I'd ask you. I know you suggest above that, for questions of this sort, we consider you a dead author, but I know you're not. When I came to a similar impasse about which of Ursula Le Guin's works to include in another class, she actually replied and offered her input. I extend the same offer to you: which of the Sandman volumes would you like to see on the syllabus?
Thank you for your time,
Nicholas Ozment, English Instructor
WSUIt's a hard one. I think if I were teaching I'd either go for Season of Mists or Fables and Reflections, because both of them have stuff to teach -- those nice chewy bits that people can like or dislike, argue with or discuss. I know a lot of teachers like to teach Dream Country because a) Midsummer Night's Dream won awards, and b) it's short and c) it has a script in the back. Your call. And good luck. ... I mentioned recently that there were some beautiful new Polish and Russian book covers for my books that I'd seen at signings, which got me thinking. The International Cover gallery on this website is incredibly out of date. It's at http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Works/Books/International_Covers. And though I get a lot of foreign editions in, and will at some point head down to the basement and rummage around and scan some (this week's mail brought the two-volume Japanese edition of Anansi Boys, on the cover of which Fat Charlie is not only Very White, but also Very Thin, and the complex Chinese - ie. Taiwan and Hong Kong - edition of The Graveyard Book) I thought that blog readers, being, as you are, all over the world, might be a better resource for knowing where to look for foreign covers.
So if you have, and want to scan in or link to foreign covers we do not have posted, or are a foreign publisher and would like your books up, there is now a submission page: http://www.neilgaiman.com/extras/covers/ which lets you upload them to the webgoblin, who will put them in the gallery (and on the pages for the books in question). And perhaps we should have them arranged by country as well -- some countries, like the French and the Russians and the Poles, have had so many different covers over the years. (Also, Absolute Death was published this week. It is amazingly beautiful. Yes, I think they overpriced it too and no, pricing decisions at DC Comics are nothing to do with me. And the audio book of Good Omens will be released tomorrow. It's read by Martin Jarvis. People have asked why it is not read by me, and I have to explain that it is because if I read it I would just be doing my Martin Jarvis reading the William storiess impression, so better by far to have the real thing.)
Was your basement finished when you purchased your home or did you have it finished for your basement library? If you finished it yourself, how difficult was it? Also, I thought I saw a dehumidifier in one of the Photosynth pictures. Do you need one because of the books?
I'm asking because we have a full unfinished basement that we would like to have finished. We are running out of room for our books also. I don't think we don't have as many as you do though. :)
Any other suggestions for such a project would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
C.No, when we got here the basement had a clay floor that puddled when it rained. We hired some nice builders and spent a lot of money finishing it, putting in drainage tiles, underfloor heating and all. There's a dehumidifier there in the summer and a humidifier in the winter, because after the first few years I noticed that binding glue and leather book covers were both cracking and flaking. There's now the equivalent of a large house in basement rooms beneath this house, filled with books and CDs and suchlike stuff. And finally, a few photos from the China trip, taken by Ian Ford (or in one case, on his camera). Ian's a travel guide who now lives in China who helped organise my travels, and came along with me for part of the journey.  Amanda and I in the silk clothes that my publisher had given us as a thank you for coming, and because they are terrific.  Amanda, Ian Ford (in the pale top, also a gift from my publishers) and.. my publishers, SF World -- who will be publishing the mainland Chinese edition of The Graveyard Book very soon, and are very excited. I'm holding the Galaxy Award for this year, given to the foreign author most popular with Chinese reader-voters. This was my second year of winning it, so I have retired from the competition and said that they have to find a new favourite foreign author now.
11/9/09 08:27 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/8350673.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8350673.stm Three young Americans detained in Iran over alleged illegal entry are to be charged with spying, the state news agency says.
11/9/09 03:44 pm
http://blog.algore.com/2009/11/busy_week.html My tour promoting Our Choice continues this week. Right now I am in San Francisco. On Wednesday, I’ll be in Phoenix speaking at Greenbuild Conference and later this week, I am looking forward to appearing at the Miami Book Fair. I hope to see some of you at these events. If you haven’t yet, you can purchase Our Choice online at: AmazonBarnes and NobleBordersIndie Bound
As with An Inconvenient Truth, 100 percent of the proceeds I would otherwise earn will be contributed to the Alliance for Climate Protection.
11/9/09 08:23 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/europe/8349742.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8349742.stm World leaders past and present join tens of thousands of Berliners marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
11/9/09 07:17 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/8351424.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8351424.stm About a million pushchairs made by Maclaren USA are recalled in the US amid reports of children's fingertips being cut off.
11/9/09 12:12 pm
Tomorrow I am having surgery at about 11am to remove the bone spur in my right shoulder. The surgery will take about one hour and there will be 1-1/2 hours of recovery time. So I'm done at about 1:30pm. If anyone has spare energy for easy surgery by steady-handed doctor with good outcome, I'd appreciate it. The idea is that removing the bone spur will remove a narrowing of the channel in the shoulder such that I won't go through several months a year having shoulder pain and cortisone shots. This would be a great goodness. But it is still surgery with anaesthesia and well, I'm just a tad nervous. The good news is I can probably type -- as long as my elbow is supported and I'm not moving my shoulder -- within a day or two. So you might see me in SL (any maybe WoW) and I'll probably be reading email & Lj. I expect to be back at work by next Monday. Anyway, thanks in advance for any energy you can spare.
Current Music: folks talking in the breakroom
11/8/09 06:05 pm
I had a very nice weekend. Friday I exercycled and caught up on CSI Miami, shopped, went to my SL photo club (but it sort of fizzled) and ended the evening with a totally crazy WoW drinking game doing the instance Karazhan. I went through two bottles of cider and was pretty lit by the time we were done. But I didn't die even once. Go me. Typing otoh, was amazing hard. Luckily we were mostly on vent. Saturday there was something weird wrong with our water (as in full of sediment) but we weren't able to reach anyone at the water dept. We still don't know exactly what happened, a neighbor says a well broke. And others said they were advised to boil water. I left to go to the House with Russell still trying to get through to the SJ Water Dept. He gave up on the "emergency" number after 30 minutes and sent an email which got a "we'll be in the office on Monday" auto-response. So fail. But I escaped when Chris arrived as we were carpooling to the Ghede devotional and ancestor ritual at the Umbanda House. We remembered many Beloved Dead and it was very moving. Ember sang some amazingsongs. (I want to learn them nao!) And the feast was lovely. Being a devotion, it was done by like 4:30 and I went with Chris over to Nettie's where Tracy had spent the day. We hung out with Nettie, Marina, Sabrina, Jeff, Chris & Tracy for several hours of hot tubbing and Indian food. It was fab. And yes, I got home about 8:30 and played WoW. No surprise there. :-) Sunday I got up and made crab cakes for breakfast. Russell and I finished watching the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. I thought it was pretty good but didn't question enough. It was very much a chronicle of every day folks who worked for or against Wal-Mart rather than a news piece. We also finished watching the KQED four-part series, Saving the Bay. This I highly recommend! It was a history of the San Francisco Bay from prehistory to the present. I learned alot. I also went to my SL photo club Sunday meet and took a lot of cool pictures of blue avatars. Blue, being our theme for the week. *grin*
Current Music: Sweet Honey in the Rock - Breaths
11/9/09 07:03 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/8351437.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8351437.stm The US Supreme Court rejects an appeal for a stay of execution by lawyers for the man behind the 2002 sniper attacks in Washington DC.
11/9/09 06:58 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport1/hi/football/8350717.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8350717.stm Liverpool look to close a 12-point gap on the Premier League leaders as they host Birmingham, while Barnsley meet Sheffield United in the Championship and there is FA Cup first-round action.
11/9/09 05:09 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/europe/8349742.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8349742.stm World leaders past and present join thousands of Berliners marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
11/9/09 05:06 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/8350673.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8350673.stm Three young Americans detained in Iran over alleged illegal entry are to be charged with spying, the state news agency says.
11/9/09 06:19 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/8351437.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8351437.stm The US Supreme Court rejects an appeal for a stay of execution by lawyers for the man behind the 2002 sniper attacks in Washington DC.
11/9/09 05:56 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/business/8349832.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8349832.stm UK confectioner Cadbury rejects a £9.8bn hostile bid from US food giant Kraft, which will now go directly to shareholders.
11/9/09 03:21 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/8350724.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8350724.stm President Obama is due to meet Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House as Washington tries to revive Mid-East peace talks
11/9/09 03:34 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport1/hi/boxing/8349835.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/8349835.stm British boxer David Haye hopes to defend his WBA heavyweight title at a major London venue in early 2010 and Wembley Stadium is on the agenda for a summer bout.
11/9/09 05:37 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/africa/8351260.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8351260.stm The chairman of South Africa's national power company resigns after he was accused of pushing out his black chief executive.
11/9/09 11:12 am
We have been watching the news for the last 48 hours as Ida has been reported as a hurricane then re classed as a Tropical Storm. This means winds around 60 to 80 mph with lighting/thunder and up to 6 inches of rain.
They have closed all the schools including the University. This means hubby will be home and not out in the middle of it.
I have been on line learning how to prep for up coming storm. Very similar to earth quake prep. Major difference is that you need to secure anything outside that can be picked up by the wind and blown about. Potted plants, lawn furniture, garbage bins all have to be stored in the shed. We also have stocked up on food, water, batteries and propane.
Power going out is a big possibility. Most power cables are above ground and there is a lot of trees around them. If we end living in this region for a few more years, we need to get us a generator for the fridge.
We do not live in the flood plane so we are ok there.
Cats are inside and conked out. They have a good stash of food and litter. They took one look outside and came right back in.
So I think we are as ready as we can be. Considering we are living in a house that was built in the 30's and survived past major hurricanes, I think we are going to be just fine.
11/9/09 04:54 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/8351032.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8351032.stm A US Army major who is suspected of killing 13 people at a military base has regained consciousness, hospital sources say.
11/9/09 04:27 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/8350939.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8350939.stm Palestinian activists have marked the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by knocking through a segment of the West Bank barrier.
11/9/09 04:56 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8351245.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8351245.stm The Football Association warns Wayne Rooney over his future conduct for his remark to TV cameras after Manchester United's defeat by Chelsea.
11/9/09 09:42 am
A while back I got to handle a Kindle reader. The guy had brought it just to show me because I had expressed skepticism about its superiority as a reading medium. No really, it has electronic ink, he assured me; you can look at it from any angle and see the text clearly and without any of the eye strain associated with CRTs and whatever computer screens are made from these days. It was small, sleek, portable, and had a nifty leather slipcover. You couldn't lose!
I had to admit, the Kindle was an admirable bit of hardware. The fact that textbooks could be purchased in Kindle format definitely caught my interest. I thanked him for bringing his Kindle to show me, and handed it back to him. I'm impressed by the Kindle, but I won't be buying one, at least not for general reading purposes.
Why? Let me finish.
After getting to see a Kindle up close and fool around with it a bit, I heard the occasional news story about the device, like the news story about the guy who brought legal action against Amazon for deleting one of his books from the device. If I remember it correctly Amazon had some concern over pirated Kindle books and so were yanking those (that?) titles. What got people riled up was that an outside entity could interfere with their choice in reading material without their consent or knowledge. This is a subject I feel very strongly about.
Part of my strong opinion about being able to access and read any material you chose without undue fear of interference comes from the two years I worked at a large independent bookstore in Denver, CO. This business was unwavering in its stance on allowing people to access whatever reading material they may like; they stocked many controversial titles (even if some had to be kept behind glass to deter theft) and were willing to order anything that could be ordered. This philosophy was taken all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court when law enforcement tried to gain access to the records of what customers bought on their in-store credit accounts in order to gain evidence in some local drug case. The owner of the store TTTFO and the battle over freedom and privacy begain. This sort of snafu was repeated in the early days of the enforcement of Homeland Security when Radical Militant Librarian(TM) refused to allow access to patron borrowing records.
I like to enjoy my media without harassment. We all probably do. My resistance to the Kindle and related readers are only partly based in my philosophy as a book lover. Or rather - now that I think about it - it has everything to do with my being a book lover.
Kindle is a product sold by Amazon. The Nook is a product sold by B&N. I've heard noise about a Microsoft reader and a Mac reader and and and.
I don't want to purchase hardware to read. I don't want to purchase multiple forms of hardware to read. To me, books only need one form of hardware - that of dead tree (or dead soy, or whatever). Simple. Convenient. Sure they take up a lot of space, but as a book lover, I don't really mind that. The bulk and physical presence of books is a comfort and pleasure. But the simple bottom line is that I don't want to need to buy additional doohickies in order to do something as simple as read.
Is this contradictory coming from someone who enjoys iPods, record players, stereo systems, DVD players, VCRs, and laptops? Maybe. But really, if I can cut down on needing to purchase one more gadget in order to do something as simple as open a book and read, I'm all for it.
(Still - if and when I can get all my textbooks on Kindle, I'll change my song a little.)
11/9/09 08:02 am
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11/9/09 03:52 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/europe/8349742.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8349742.stm World leaders past and present join thousands of Berliners marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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