- Exploding Chewing Gum Kills Student. I have to admit, this sounded like a hoax or urban legend when I first read about it, but it seems distrubingly legit. At least, I didn’t find anything discounting the story at Snopes. [via]
- Well this is disappointing and surprising: the Internet Review of Science Fiction is closing after its February issue.
- Grant Morrison on what appeals to him about comics as a storytelling medium:
The essentially magical qualities of inert words and ink pictures working together with reader consciousness to create a holographic Sensurround emotional experience. What else?
- I’ve seen some talk about how 2010 is the real end of the past decade — that the decade is still going on, that is — since there was never a Year Zero. I think this is maybe true on a very pedantic, technical level, but I also think it’s a battle that was lost two thousand years ago, in Year Ten. When people talk about the last decade, they’re including 2000-2001, not miscounting. As Bad Astronomy points out [via], the argument that 2010 isn’t the start of a new decade suggests that “people [are] confused on how we delineate time.”
- And finally, Daniel’s Daily Monster:
Every week day (starting from 7th May 2009) I draw a little monster card to go in my son’s lunchbox.
These are just really delightful. [via]
Month: January 2010
The last day
Yet another quiet day, the last before I return to work after a two-week absence. I haven’t even checked my e-mail since December 18.
I met a friend this afternoon for our mostly-weekly writing group, where we talked about tv shows and books and I rehashed my pet peeve with the adverb “darkly.” (I’m looking at you, J.K. Rowling.) After a few hours, we actually buckled down and did some writing. We do mostly free-writing in the group, working from a prompt we select on the spot, and I tend to generate ideas more than fully formed scenes in the forty minutes we give to each prompt. Some of those ideas have legs, and some of them don’t. Today, I had an idea for a story about a man who can see the future and so is imprisoned on an island where there is no future. I think it’s an idea worth keeping after.
Other than that, not much to report. It continues to be bitterly cold and windy here, and I continue to thoroughly enjoy watching episodes of The Big Bang Theory instead of going outside. I haven’t had too much luck with today’s New York Times Sunday Crossword, I’m afraid, but for Christmas I received a big omnibus edition that should give me plenty of alternative puzzles to turn to.
Still, I can’t help but wonder…is my vacation really over?
A lazy Satur–it is Saturday, right?
Today was about as eventful as yesterday, although also twice as cold. I went for a walk around two o’clock, which was…well, let’s just say ill-advised in retrospect. (As Heather wisely noted, though, this would have been better realized in futurespect.) I turned back after about half an hour (the length of only one in my backlog of podcasts), desperate to be out of the wind and chill. I stayed outside just long enough to help my father take down the Christmas lights from the front of the house, and then I escaped back inside to tinker again with my short story. I think I’ve pretty much reached the end of it, although it does still need a little fine-tuning before I mail it off. (This is the postcard I bought, though not through eBay, if you’re curious.)
I also went to see Up in the Air this afternoon and really quite liked it. It’s a good deal sweeter, and sadder, than I expected, and George Clooney and Vera Farmiga have terrific chemistry together. I also enjoyed the soundtrack, which I purchased online when I got home. I’d definitely recommend it.
Other than that, basically just pottering around in the last few days of my vacation. It’s still hard to believe it’s just about over.
Vacation, all I ever wanted
I don’t know about you, but I spent the first day of the new year — the new decade, depending on how you reckon these things — doing not much of anything.
Oh sure, my father and I took down the Christmas tree this morning. And I did a little tinkering with my short story for the Geist Annual Postcard Story Contest. And I watched a few more episodes of The Big Bang Theory — how have I not been watching this show? — and then this evening I watched a pretty decent horror movie called The Signal — kind of like a neat modern riff on George Romero’s The Crazies, with some good scares and interesting thoughts on what mass psychosis might actually look like. (“Do you have the crazy in your head?!”) But overall, really, where did the day go?
I’m in the tail end of my two-week-long vacation (sixteen days, actually), and I’m starting to feel like maybe I’m ready to get back into having a daily routine. Vacation has really agreed with me, and there’s a big part of me that doesn’t want to go back. But, at the same time, I think I really benefit from having a more structured schedule. I haven’t really done a lot of writing these past couple of weeks, and I’ve definitely done less reading. (A forty-five-minute commute, twice a day, really does wonders to focus my time for that.)
I go back to work on Monday, and it’s kind of nice to feel like I’m ready for that.
Random 10 1/1
Last week. This week:
- “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley
Even your emotions have an echo in so much space - “Iris” by Live, guessed by Kim
I liked the way my hand looked on your head - “Take it to the Limit” by the Eagles, guessed by Occupant
You can spend all your love making time - “Day Tripper” by the Beatles, guessed by Occupant
Got a good reason for taking the easy way out - “Hitch Hike” by Marvin Gaye
That’s what the sign on the highway read - “Please Be Kind” by Frank Sinatra
My dreams are on parade - “Seven” by David Bowie
The gods forgot they made me, so I forgot them too - “Bad Moon Rising” by the Holmes Brother (orig. CCR), guessed by Occupant
Looks like we’re in for nasty weather - “Changing of the Guards” by Bob Dylan
A messenger arrived with a black nightingale - “Lazybones” by Soul Coughing
Drunkenness is a hand-held scrambling down Delancey
As always, good luck!