Okay, so...I made Clare give me the collabs from the meeting before last, but I forgot about them in turn...So only about a month late, here they are!

Collab #1:
"Touchdown, turnaround, I never see you around," sang Gregg to his watercolor of Howard. Ed sat next to him wondering if he should fear for his life. Gregg asked Ed, "Do ya love meh?" Ed's mouth formed a vehement "No!!" but he suddenly took on a thoughtful look . . . Ed started quivering, barely able to resist his manly goodness. Gregg looked at Ed with a lustful look in his eyes. Ed looked at Gregg in the eyes and said, "You're missing an eye. That's gross." (Okay, who the hell was it with the whole eye missing thing?) "But I still love you, Old Gregg! Even if you ARE a scaly manfish who's in love with a man from Leeds, I'll never leave you."

Collab #2:
cream pastries, pancakes and butterflies
rain-sticks and incense-induced headaches
razor blades and hand grenades
Bush and Iraq
your dog and his underwear
Blockbuster cards and the PLU numder for cherries (4046)
killing certain blue-shirted boys with self-described purple eyes (run for your liiiiife, Matthew!! Sorry. That bit wasn't in there, but I felt compelled to add it.)
Wondins if I clocked out... *shifty eyes* (sorry, that's seriously what it looks like! I don't know what it is!)
I'm so happy, I do whatI like and how I like it...living in the sun lite loving in the moon lite having a wonderful time
smashing chocolate muffins into Z's face...
stuffing twinkies into the microwave, making them explode onto the spiders.

Collab #3:
One day, Ed lost his tie.
His tie was his friend.
He'd lost friends before. He got over it quickly. He lost his friends because he liked Nascar and golf.
"Maybe," he thought, "I should attempt to have NORMAL interests, that are shared by non-brain dead people."
"Naw that wouldn't be any fun," said the voice in his head. Ed wandered around the streets of Morrison until he reached Southpark. "Perhaps I should make a ladies day by getting my face done," he pondered. But then a photography store caught his eye and he dashed inside 'cause he's a freak, but he suddenly thought,
"Wait! Aren't I supposed to be being normal?"
In the corner, he spotted it. A new tie. At a photography store. Half-priced. Just as he was about to go inside the store a woman with a five-o-clock shadow, lots of muscles, and a deep voice said, "Hey, wanna be friends?"

Collab #4:
Vimes and Vetinari...holding each other in a tender embrace while staring each other in the eye.
"You're missing an eye," said Vimes. "But I still love you just as much." Vetinari smiled. "Can I eat the other one?" Vimes begged with a childish pout. (Okay, people, I think the eye culprits are Jake and Matthew. Keep an eye out for them. Puuuuun!!)Vetinari gave him a weird look, but tried to compensate for his confusion by kissing Vimes.
"That's my eye. I think you missed."
"Sorry my eyes are made of glass."

And that's that. :D

One Year and Counting

I don't know if anyone noticed but in August this blog turned one years old. Happy birthday to it.

Last Meeting

Our meeting Thursday went well, I thought. This week we had a small group but we did more exercises this time than we ever did in the past. Maybe I'm getting better at picking exercises or maybe a smaller group of you rambunctious teens is easier to corral.

Meeting Tomorrow

Don't forget, youngsters, meeting tomorrow. 6 pm. Be there or be more square.

Stephen King on Harry Potter

You can read his essay here.

Any thoughts?

??????????

Wasn't someone going to post some group writing we did?

Is Middle Earth Europe?

Somebody has combined a map of Middle Earth and a map of Europe to show that Middle Earth was based on Europe.

Watching the tube

So, did anyone watch the science fiction show on ABC last night? I was wrong about the time. It started at 10 not 8. I thought the show was OK. I was extremely disappointed by the number of commercial breaks. I swear the show was probably more of a half hour than an hour and they juiced up the time with commercials. It got to be tough to sit through after a while. I guess that's about what you can expect from network television.

Television Tip

This actually sounds promising. Starting this Saturday, ABC is going to air adaptions of original science fiction short stories. It's called Masters of Science Fiction. Any series that is going to attempt the filming of short stories by John Kessel, Robert Heinlein and Harlan Ellison is definately going to be worth a shot. If you are sitting on your rear near a television this Saturday at 8 pm, give the show a look.

What the hey?

Wasn't somebody going to post the writings we did as a group at our last meeting? I am almost positive that someone said they were going to post them particular writings. Who could it have been? And, what's the deal?

Where are they?

I thought someone was going to transcribe our creations from the other night?

Meeting Tomorrow

Boy, do I love the librrary's proxy server. I love how about ten percent of the time it can't connect with email accounts and blogger and loses your data. It's an invaluable service.

I had just written a message asking a couple of regular members of the writing group to bring a writing exercise for us to try. I want to impress our new people by showing them how smart you guys are. So, not only bring something to read and share, bring an exercise if you dare.

A little weirdness for you

There is an artist in New York that makes haikus out of names on gravestones and the plasters them on walls in New York City. They are called daikus. Or diekus. Still sounds the same.

I also found a site that has limericks made from famous poems.

Do I find the coolest stuff to share or what? OK, I still it all from Metafilter but I still have to look.

I also found that the space shuttle is not a safe form of transportation.

Meeting This Thursday

Howdy, guys and gals. I just wanted to remind everyone that we are meeting this Thursday at 6 pm. I have had two inquiries in the last couple of weeks concerning our group and we have the potential to have three new participants. As always, please don't scare the new people if possible.

Harry Potter thing

Naturally there are going to be lots and lots of references in the media to Harry Potter because of the book. Leave it to Unshelved to put a nice twist on the whole event.

Harry Potter

So, is everyone hunkered down today and reading the new Harry Potter book? Any early reactions?

Favorite weapons from SF?

This blog posting was inspired by another blog posting to post their favorite ten weapons of science fiction. I've been thinking about this for a few minutes and I realized that the SF I have read hasn't had a lot of weaponry in it. Here's a few I can think of.

1) Corwdainer Smith has a story in which humans are telepathically linked to cats and the cats are in small ships (or some kind of contraption) and they patrol outside of a larger space ship, protecting it. Now that's a cool weapon.

2) I always liked that Heinlein considered the well trained individual the most dangerous weapon the in the universe.

3) They used sling shots on the generational starship in the story "Universe," also known as "Orphans of the Sky."

4) The remote controlled combat robots in "Forever Peace" by Joe Haldeman.

5) Those big machine guns Bruce Willis used in "The Fifth Element."

6) A heat ray weapon David Drake described in one of his short stories. The way they used it like a machine gun against an indigenous people still sticks in my head to this day.

7) OK, light sabers. They look awesome and sound even better.

8) The space warfare describe in Heinlein's novel "Citizen of the Galaxy."

9) The nanotechnology equipped service rifle used by the soldiers in Scalzi's "Old Man's War."

10) Every single sword that had a name in the Lord of the Rings.

How about ya'll?

Harry-est Cities

Have you been wondering what cities have the densest Harry Potter populations? Wonder no more, kiddies.

Science Fiction Library

It's at UC Riverside and you can read about here. (Link stolen from David Brin's Blog).

Hubble image tours

These are very cool. I also stole this link from David Brin's blog.

What to read after the last Potter book

The website SF Signal is working on a list for three different age groups so that when people have finished reading the last Harry Potter book they can move on to something else.

Authors and the internets

If you is an author you gots to use the internets.

Does this look like me?



Make your own Simpson's avatar here.

It's the end of the world

Since Mitchell was reading a book by Pratchett and Gaiman about the end of the world I thought it would be appropriate to link to a review of a collection of short stories that are inspired by or about an apocalypse.

Meeting tonight

Just to let you know. The library is open today and we are having our meeting, even if Clare will be ultra late.

So apparently everybody hates me and isn't reading and commenting on my post so I'm not coming to the meeting tomorrow.

Actually that's not why. And I might be able to come for the last bit of the meeting, but considering Charlotte's public transportation system, probably not. I got a job at the library. A summer teen internship that is *gasp* paid. It's at the Mint Hill branch. I'm working until six tomorrow. And I'm taking the bus back from there...so I might make it back for...the last five minutes of the meeting. But don't be too suprised if I don't. Sorry!

(I'm working for the library!)

(I have a little pin that says "Staff" and everything.)

(Isn't that awesome?)

I thought this essay was really amazing. Well, I say essay, it was originally meant as a speech to be given to high schoolers. I wish I had read it about a year ago. I agree emphatically with most everything he says and he actually brought up some points I hadn't thought about before. It's actually good, so of course he never actually got to give it...


linky

It starts off pretty typical sounding, but give it a try. It gets interesting.

Edit: This one is pretty amazing too

Meeting

Library closed. We cannot meet at the fountain. What do you think of meeting next Thursday?

Meeting thing

The bossman still hasn't got back to me on whether or not we can meet outside. I probably won't know until tomorrow morning. Stay tuned.

Tomorrow's Meeting

According to the branch manager, William, there is a chance the building may be closed tomorrow. I will know around 9 am tomorrow and will let you know when I know.

As far as meeting at the fountain, I have emailed William to see if that will be OK. There may be some policy that may prevent us from doing that. I will keep you posted on that suggestion. If the bossman says it's OK then I am fine with doing that.

Ed:
As we all know, the library is having some rather severe problems with paint fumes. These problems may or may not (but hopefully will not) cause this month's meeting to be delayed or cancelled.

A few of us were thinking (more wondering, really) that perhaps if the library ends up being closed on Thursday you could come anyway, and we could have our meeting by the fountain out back. We've done that before, and aside from the rocks, it wasn't bad.

Just a thought, let us know what you think.

Changes

You may not be aware of this but the librarian profession is in a constant state of change. This excerpt of a good story on technology in libraries sums it up well: "“The librarian as information priest is as dead as Elvis,” Needham said. The whole “gestalt” of the academic library has been set up like a church, he said, with various parts of a reading room acting like “the stations of the cross,” all leading up to the “altar of the reference desk,” where “you make supplication and if you are found worthy, you will be helped.”"

I find this to very much be the case at the Morrison library. People don't come to the desk right off anymore. They tend to come to us when they get stuck. It is necessary to not only direct people to online resources and web sites but you have to know how to walk them through these resources and sites.

Adventure Reading

Just in case you are getting bored during your summer break I am providing you with a link to the 100 best adventure books as assembled by National Geographic.

Gamers and their Avatars

A photo essay. It cracked me up. I love Metafilter.

Weird

The strangest thing just happened. This homeless guy that comes into the library every day just bit Melanie on the hand. I had to walk him outta here physically with a little help from a guy from circulation. He kept trying to bite us as we were walking him out. He would talk, just try and bit. It was weird. After we got him outside he started chasing patrons in the parking lot and one ran up near the intersection of Colony and Morrison. The homeless guy ran in front of a car and got nailed and he exploded all over the road it was really gross. Melanie's hand is starting to turn read and the 911 number is busy. We are going to try and take her to the emergency room.

Holy Cow

You're not going to believe it. I just got back from lunch and Melanie has been walking around biting people while I was gone. She bit Charlie and the new librarian, Catie and a bunch of patrons on the second floor. We have tied her to a chair with an extension cord and she keeps drooling all over herself and slurring things like "Eat you! Blurrgle! Eat you!" It's kind freaking me out.

Gets weirder

So, we got Melanie tied to a chair and shes' really starting to freak out. Biting out at every person that gets near her. We still can't get through to 911 and those that Melanie bit earlier are starting to get sick and a couple of the old men are getting in a fist fight. The two men turned out to be acting like Melanie and they were fighting over a dead body. While the two crazed old men were fighting one of them ripped the head off the other. The severed head is still chomping away at thin air. Still can't through to 911 and if everyone that Melanie bit is going to start acting crazy, I am getting out of here. I'm heading home right now.

Holy cow

I just got home and I just had the strangest drive of my life. The roads were deserted. All the library employees downstairs agreed with me that we should all go home because there were other people milling around outside trying to bite people and business inside had really trailed off. I didnt' bother to set the alarm. I left a message on Williams voice mail. Let him go by there and clear out the freaks and try to lock that place up.

The only people I saw on the road were behaving like Melanie ad the fighting old men. At stop signs they would rush the car. I stopped stopping at stop signs. Wendell, my roommate, has been off all day and he has been scanning the news and he had the door barricaded when I got home. He made me talk in a complete sentance before he'd let me in.

More information here.

Whales are really old

This is amazing. Too bad the whale had to die for this information to become known. The article from Washington Post has a picture of the whale killing device.

Zombies?

What no response on the zombie blog thing idea? No one wants to write about an imaginary zombie takeover?

A link or two

On June 13th we are going to pretend the world is coming to a zombie end and we'll blog here like we would if we were actually trying to warn each other. Read about the project here.

Harry Potter stamps?

Just in case I haven't convinced those that have listened. Another positive review for Un Lun Dun by China Mieville.

A science fiction writer asks if Harry Potter is really fantasy.

Meeting tomorrow

Hey guys, just want to let you know that we are meeting tomorrow at 6 pm. See you there.

Meeting

I sent out an email but I wanted to cover all the bases. We will not be meeting tomorrow because the library is closed. We will be meeting next Thursday at the usual time, 6:00.

For anyone that hasn't heard Lloyd Alexander died last Thursday at age 83.

There's not much I can really think of to say. The world is a poorer place.

Damn it.

A crossword puzzle

If you have absolutely nothing else to do check out the crossword puzzle I will link to below. I created it for our adult summer reading program and it was really hard to do. I had no idea creating a crossword puzzle would be so hard. I almost cried a couple of times. There a few rules of crossword puzzles and I broke two of them. The whole puzzle has to be connected. This one consists of two distinct halves. Also all letters must be in two words. There are two letters in this puzzle that only appear in one word. As difficult as this was I can live with my two little cheats. Enjoy, if you will.

Crossword Puzzle!

New Tolkien book

I'm sure you are all familiar with that new Tolkien book. Has anyone read it? I have it sitting on my desk here at the library. I see that it is selling real well.

Love them internets

I haven't read this yet but it was linked to by David Brin and it's a speech given by Vernor Vinge. That's about as confident as I can be about a blind link. The speech is about the future of man. I am going to print it out and read it. Enjoy.

Oh yeah. He talks about the singularity in the speech. It's a concept pretty new to me and here's a definition from the website that has the text of Vinge's speech: Singularity

Defined by Vernor Vinge as the postulated point or short period in our future when our self-guided evolutionary development accelerates enormously (powered by nanotechnology, neuroscience, AI, and perhaps uploading) so that nothing beyond that time can reliably be conceived. The Singularity is a common matter of discussion in transhumanist circles. There is no concise definition, but usually the Singularity is meant as a future time when societal, scientific and economic change is so fast we cannot even imagine what will happen from our present perspective, and when humanity will become posthumanity. Another definition is the singular time when technological development will be at its fastest.

Haiku T-shirt


Just a suggestion.

What I did for my spring vacation

I bet you guys are wondering how my vacation in Michigan is going. Well, for one thing, I jumped off a moving swing for the first time in about twenty years. I didn't even hurt myself and out jumped an eight-year-old. Pretty good form, eh?

The Amazing Petitions of Wonderfullness

Mr. Mack's Portrait in Classrooms:

Who a better role model? Whose a more handsome face? Indeed, who but Mr. Majchrowicz is admired so by students and faculty alike? Our school, though quite excellent, is in need of an incentive to study hard, and this is the man for the job. Of course, we cannot waste Mr. Mack's precious time by taking him from his classes, so the student council has come up with a solution. They have decided the best course of action is to produce a well-done portrait of him for every classroom to hang above its board. These visions of magnificence would be accompanied by one of his many inspirational quotes. How much more incentive do you need to do what is right? Sign here if you agree and want to help carry out this plan.

(For the love of god, don't actually do it! The man already has too much support. I need to crush him. Now, you're more than welcome to print out the below and post it on every available space. :D)

School-wide Propaganda Plot:

Is it not true that history repeats itself? I'm sure everyone remembers the "Sanders" fiasco of school year 06/07. Sanders was a military psycho who subjected all us students to hideous uniforms and grueling hard labor. Now a new threat has risen, in the seemingly innocent seventh grade LA teacher, Mr. Majchrowicz. Oh, yes, he seems quite charming,but he has now uncovered his sinister scheme to my third block class. We all saw him for what he is and were very distressed. He aims to replicate an old method of former Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong. What method, you ask? One of tyranny. Of communism. Mr. "Mack's" sordid plan is this: to put an image of his own face in a place prominence in every classroom, accompanied by a corruptive quote to plant in the students' minds. Our naive and unblemished children do not deserve this. This man's more than questionable role models say clearly his intentions-- to take over AG middle with awful, communism-esque ideology! Nip it in the bud, the saying goes. We must rally together to stop this infant tyrant. Please sign here:

'Cause communism's evil! An update: we have a new word in the dictionary nowadays.

Mackism (n)- the complete and utter rule of Mr. Mack over room 206. Not to mention the "Mr. Mack is the best" posters. The man is MAD. He's snapped. (Or he has too much time on his hands.)

Anyway, I'll post my Spring Break and morbid death poems later. All who mock them will suffer a very morbid death themselves. Blah.

Meeting this week

Hey guys, I sent an email out a few days ago that informed you that we are meeting this Thursday instead of our usual fourth Thursday of the month. That is this Thursday, the 19th of April. That is just about exactly 48 hours from the time I am currently typing this message. There will be a special door prize given to the first 15 teen writers that come through the door. I haven't decided if the twelve year old get a prize yet or not.

So it goes...

I'm sure everyone has seen that Kurt Vonnegut died today. I figured I should be mentioned him because this wouldn't be much of a writers group blog if we didn't acknowledge the passing of one of the great writers and thinkers of the last fifty years.

One of the best experiences of my life was sitting in the audience at Spirit Square for about an hour listening to Kurt Vonnegut speak. This happened back in the early 90's before some of you were even born. I remember telling my friends afterwards that I felt I had sat in the presence of a truly wise person for the first time in my life. A remark that probably would have given him fits of laughter since to him man was anything but a wise animal.

Peeps! Peeps! Peeps!

OK, this has nothing to do with writing but how can I resist linking to a contest for dioramas with peeps? How could I not link to that? How?

China Mieville

Hey guys, if you remember I mentioned I was reading Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. I finished a few days ago and I really enjoyed it. He plays around with the whole idea of the young person having adventures in a fantasy world. If you are interested there is a nice interview with him on Youtube where he talks about this book

Sneaky little devil

I came across an entry on Metafilter a few weeks back that I wanted to share. A photographer named Bill Sullivan goes around New York City and takes surreptitious photographs of people as they go through daily life. The images show people honestly and show vulnerability. I'll call them poetic. I'd like to try that some day. In fact I already kind of do it when I can. My particular strategy is to do it from a moving car because, even though non-commercial street photography is legal, you can get beat up over it.

The Family Nietzsche

Ever wonder what would happen if you paired ranmdom Nietzsche quotes and random Family Circus cartoons? Me neither but someone has.

Here's the only thing I've written lately: my haikus! (Actually, I take that back. If you want to read the comics I've written lately, just click on this lovely link. )

In the Heart of the Sea

Whale rammed the Essex.
No food is left, it's time for
Cannibalism.

Harry Potter

Scar on my forehead.
Voldemort is quite evil.
I gotta kill him.

Ed
Who is this Ed guy?
All that really matters is,
He has a ponytail.

There ya go. I think my favorite is the Harry Potter one...

The world is your oyster

Hey guys, I sent an email out yesterday about how this blog is now being linked to from the library's webpage. If you are looking for an audience now is the time to post. I'd like to see a few haikus from the last meeting up on here. Sure, mine are awesome but let's see some of yours.

The Haikus from our exercise

OK, here's my three haikus based on the Lord of the Rings. One for each part of the trilogy.

The Fellowship of the Ring

An uncle's gold ring
a menagerie meets
I'll go on alone.

The Two Towers

"We'll fight the wizard."
"We'll enter the Dark Lord's land."
"Hey look! Walking trees!"

The Return of the King

That's one huge army...
Let's challenge a bigger one
Four fingers, no ring.

W.H. Auden on poetry

This quote from this article really caught my eye: "The girl whose boyfriend starts writing her love poems should be on her guard. Perhaps he really does love her, but one thing is certain: while he was writing his poems he was not thinking of her but of his own feelings about her and that is suspicious. Let her remember St Augustine’s confession of his feelings after the death of someone he loved very much: “I would rather have been deprived of my friend than of my grief.”"

Hey kids, this is your monthly reminder that our dodecannual writers group meeting will take place this Thursday at 6 pm. That's March 22nd at 6 pm at the Morrison Regional Library. Be sure to bring something to read whether it's yours or something you like.

Pass the paper

OK, this is the third time I have tried to write this post. Blogger!!!!

If you enjoyed the game of passing a paper around at writers night I found a website via John Scalzi that is trying to be the internets version of paper passing. You can check it out here. It's called Ficlets.

Cool book cover of the day

Never heard of the author but I likes the cover.

Free! Audio! Books!

Yes, they are free. Yes, they are in public domain and yes, they are read by volunteers. Still, free audio books.

Real?

I don't know if this is real or not but if it is, it's hysterical.

A survey by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg planning Dept

Got some opinions on how Charlotte is being developed? Tell the yokels in charge at the survey link to here.

Where is it?

Didn't someone have to versions of a poem and they were going to post both versions so we could see them?

Poking around on the blog of the Scalzi guy Ed linked to, (yes I have no life) I found this pretty interesting post entitled "10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing." I thought some people would find it interesting/useful.

Here ya go!

Accessible SF

I've read in quick succession recently two novels by an up and coming SF writer named John Scalzi. I've been reading this blog and he brought up an entry he made a while back concerning entry level SF. Specifically, SF for people that don't read science fiction. If any of you are not overwhelmed by schoolwork take a gander at his essay.

Personally I have always found good science fiction to be entry level science fiction. Every new science fiction (or fantasy) novel has to introduce readers to a new universe and a good writer should be able to do that for a long time SF reader and someone that has never picked up a SF book before. I think Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," Roth's "The Plot Against America" and Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" all straddle that line nicely.

SF Writers who blog

I do not remember if I have posted this before but a SF website out there has a list of SF writers who have blogs.

A writer

I've read some of China Mieville's short stories and they are excellent and just weird enough that he might appeal to some of you. He is coming out with a fantasy novel for younger readers and he discusses it here. If anyone picks up the novel, reads it and loves it I hope you give me due credit.

I really like his reason for writing a book for youngsters: "I've always wanted to write a children's book. No book that I read as an adult, no matter how much I love it, has an impact on me the way books did when I was a child, and I think there's something very inspiring about that absolute fervour and abandon with which children read. It's also because the kind of fairy-tale logic I can use in a YA book I could never get away with in an adult book, so there's a real narrative freedom."

Writing Contest

Just in case one of you has a near future science fiction story concerning successful space travel in our solar system stored either in your brain or on paper or on your hard drive there is contest posted here.

Oblivious Regurgitation

Ever mentally compose a tune, only to realize later on that you're just repeating something that you've already heard? Happens to me every once in a while.

I just realized that one piece of writing I came up with at a meeting, thinking that it was original, was almost an exact quote from somewhere else.

Damn you, xkcd, damn you!

---

(Whee, blogger is letting me post again!)

Internet Goodness

Click on the open spaces of this test and when you are finished the website will display where you clicked and where everyone else clicked.

Way advanced purchase

I bet all you Harry Potter maniacs will be very interested in seeing what the current biggest selling book on Amazon.

If you want to get on the library's hold list you better do it now. It's already pushing 200.

What kind of reader are you?

I am a dedicated reader.

Q and A with the Chicago Manual of Style

This may be the nerdiest thing I have ever posted here and I've posted some pretty nerdy stuff.

Found this link via Robert Sawyer's website.

High dollar SF books

Check this out. The used and rare book website Abebooks has published a list of the highest priced science fiction books sold in 2006 through their site. Big Bucks.

Next Meeting

OK gang, next Thursday the 25th of January will the be the next meeting of the Writers Club. This week, please be sure to bring something to read. Bring something that you wrote or something someone else wrote. You can read anything from Zelazny to the Book of Amos or something your grandmother wrote back in finishing school. I want to emphasize my desire for everyone to bring something to read. We haven't had a lot of original writing recently so I would very much like to see you, at the very least, bring in a piece of writing that you love and would like to share with the room.

Catch a Glimpse

Hey look! A picture of Harper Lee! I don't like it when stories like this call her "reclusive." I do not believe Harper Lee is reclusive. I think she is more like Sandy Koufax and just wants to be left alone by reporters. Why does that have to mean reclusive in our world? Imagine, someone not chasing celebrity. What an oddball.

Has everyone here read "To Kill a Mockingbird?" I didn't read it until I was in my early 30's and it's definitely a book that I will read again. Everyone should read it once. It will stay with you forever.

Something every collector needs

A fragment of Edgar Allan Poe's casket

A Giant Buddha

Is it possible for a giant Buddha to calm raging waters?

I didn't know this...

The Cowardly Lion costume in The Wizard of Oz was made from real lion pelts.

For those who are interested, I got a scanner for Christmas so The Mediocres is updating again. There was an update on Christmas and will be one tomorrow. Then it will return to the normal Tues/Thurs update schedule.

Also, Ed, thank for the offer of the use of the library's scanner. I'm sorry I never got over there to use it when I said I would.

Anyone who has never read The Mediocres and would like to start, Ed has very kindly put a link to the site on the side of this page. Have fun.

To everyone: Don't forget about the meeting tomorrow!

I was just wondering if anyone else was planning on bringing refreshments to the December meeting and if so what. I'm bringing something but I don't want it to be a repeat.

Also, Ed, I was thing of bringing soem hot chocolate mix and tea if you're willing to boil water again. Since there're probably be more people I can bring some mugs as well.

That literature website thing

I don't know if you guys remember this but we did talk about starting some kind of literature website a couple of months back. I got tired of waiting for the library to get back to me about hosting and I went ahead and used a new service provided by Google. They will register and host a domain for ten dollars a year. Not a bad deal. Here is what it looks like right now. This is by no means a final look, I was just messing with the service to see how it works. It's still in Beta mode and it isn't currently working with Mozilla Firefox and is barely working correctly with Microsoft Explorer. Hopefully they will iron that out before we get all serious. Maybe if we put our heads together we can have something together before school lets out.

Survey Monkey

For this project I am working on at work I had to create an Survey Monkey account. If you want to have a little fun try out my silly little survey so I can see how the results are gathered. Thanks.

Orhan Pamuk

Melanie sent me this: "A writer is someone who spends years patiently trying to discover the second being inside him, and the world that makes him who he is: when I speak of writing, what comes first to my mind is not a novel, a poem, or literary tradition, it is a person who shuts himself up in a room, sits down at a table, and alone, turns inward; amid its shadows, he builds a new world with words. This man – or this woman – may use a typewriter, profit from the ease of a computer, or write with a pen on paper, as I have done for 30 years. As he writes, he can drink tea or coffee, or smoke cigarettes. From time to time he may rise from his table to look out through the window at the children playing in the street, and, if he is lucky, at trees and a view, or he can gaze out at a black wall. He can write poems, plays, or novels, as I do. All these differences come after the crucial task of sitting down at the table and patiently turning inwards. To write is to turn this inward gaze into words, to study the world into which that person passes when he retires into himself, and to do so with patience, obstinacy, and joy. As I sit at my table, for days, months, years, slowly adding new words to the empty page, I feel as if I am creating a new world, as if I am bringing into being that other person inside me, in the same way someone might build a bridge or a dome, stone by stone. The stones we writers use are words. As we hold them in our hands, sensing the ways in which each of them is connected to the others, looking at them sometimes from afar, sometimes almost caressing them with our fingers and the tips of our pens, weighing them, moving them around, year in and year out, patiently and hopefully, we create new worlds."

SF anthologies in 2007

I bet you are sitting there wondering what SF and Fantasy anthologies are coming out in 2007 and just when exactly they are going to be released. Wonder no more.

Lists, lists, lists

If you enjoy end of the year best of lists then check out this website which posts a list of lists of many different categories.

Another site for the artists out there

I heard about this on NPR this morning. I had been to the site Threadless before but I had not realized the designs were user submitted. I might have to get me one or two of these.

SF website

I just found this website devoted to science fiction. According to his blog, David Brin helped start the website. I've taken a look at it and what I have seen so far has been interesting.

By the way, David Brin has a great blog and you might want to check it out. I think Matthew might find some of the discussions very interesting. His most recent post is a nice long musing on the future of artificial intelligence.

Test your geography skills

OK young'uns, lets see how good you are with the world's countries. On my first try I got a 38.

Art and commerce site

Those of you that draw check out this site called Open Studio. If you start an account and participate let me know your handle so I can sees your art. My handle is zzazazz but I can draw worth a darn.

Essentially this site uses fake currency called a Burak and you start with 25 Buraks and you create and buy and sell art. Sounds like a fun idea to me.

The all in one generator

Need a description of cat-girl? Need a name for a SF government? This generator has it all. Heck, it even generates random story ideas.

Most Cited

I don't know why I think you guys will find this interesting but I found this interesting. What are the most cited journals of the last ten years? Let's take a look.

Quote from an interview with Tom Waits

Pitchfork: Do you have a favorite sound?

Tom Waits: Bacon. In a frying pan. If you record the sound of bacon in a frying pan and play it back it sounds like the pops and cracks on an old 33 1/3 recording. Almost exactly like that. You could substitute it for that sound.

It's that time of the Year again

It's not even December and "best of" lists are starting to come out. The Guardian asks writers to name their favorite books and the New York Times lists their annual 100 Notable books.

A dog's life

A short comic about the life of a dog named Murphy.

Second Piece of Silliness

This is the other joint document we mashed up at our last meeting (at which we had hot green tea, by the way).

Once the sky ripped open
as I was walking to school.
Aliens abucted me and I just couldn't cope with them
so I killed them.
Then I walked in to the nearest building and screamed,
"Aliens are taking over the world!"
Only they were dead so I was lying.
I didn't see the three million aliens standing behind me
and naturally chaos ensued.
Then I heard a lound ring,
opened my eyes and, to my relief,
I was lying in bed.
That is, until I saw the aliens standing over me.
The aliens were holding smoking laser rifles
and were wearing matching kilts.
They whipped out bagpipes and started to sing/sling
me around until they bound me up and took me
aboard their ship and a million other aliens
all did the same thing.
They extracted all my knowledge of math from my brain
and English
and social studies
and science
and my life experience
and secrets
and random things
and all my knowledge of medieval torture devices
and all my knowledge of rocket science
and all my knowledge of faery lore
and the person died.
Until I awoke and refused to refer to myself in third person.

Guess what? This is the blog's 100th post! YAY!!!!! (Did you know that multiple exclamation points are a sign of a deranged mind?)

Alright. I havn't posted ina long while so here is the dialogue thing I wrote at the last meeting. It is, of course, brilliant.

*********

" Why are you so angry, Ed?"
" My tie is strangling me!"
"Why don't you take it off?"
" I have to look responsible! See! I'm crossing out all the swear words in my story. Gosh darn these darned ties!"
"Take it off Ed! (Ed. note: I just realized that taken out of context that could sound pretty bad.) Be free! You have nothing to lose but your chains!"
"You're right! This isn't a tie, it's one of those doggie choke collars, choking my freedom of expression!"
"Ow, my eye! Careful where you throw that thing!"
" Sorry."
"S'okay. Now that you're free what will you do?"
" Say whatever I want about those *bleep* *bleep* *bleeping* *bleepers*!"
" Ed! I'm shocked to hear such words coming out of your mouth! "
" But, but...I thought you said I was...free?"
"Just 'cause you're free doesn't mean you can do anything you want. You have to be responsible. Here, put this tie on."

*********

I would post the pictures too but, you see, my scanner broke. *Grumble, grumble*

Tonight's Meeting

We had 5 1/2 in attendance tonight. Matthew came in late so we can't count him fully. Things got a little wacky when we passed a couple of sheets of paper around again. I'll put one up now and another tomorrow.

Two Frogs walked into a bar. They walked because they did not have a car. When they came in they started to sing a song, except it turned out completely all wrong since Joe sang a C minor and Bob, D major. They didn't make a very good wager. So they had some pizza and orange juice and talked with a melancholy moose. Then they walked out, forgetting that they did not have a car, and died. A necromancer came along and he revived them. Then the frogs hopped away and walked into a bar. It was the same bar and there was blood on the floor, their blood. They slipped and impaled themselves on the moose's antlers, sending them both flying through the large window and over a cliff to an icy death. Then another frog came along to see both of the frogs floating up in the sky and the frogs hit the other frog and killed it. The three frogs lay there, stinking and attracting flies. The all of a sudden one started to wiggle, then another, then another! The three frogs got up and started to walk to another bar with the flies still flying all around them. Then they came across a moose wearing a toboggan. The flies from the frogs attacked the moose, started eating it alive. The moose screamed like a girl and ran off. The dead frogs laughed. They stole the moose's toboggan so it was cold as well as being eaten alive because the frogs were cruel having suffered death twice (is that even possible?). Anyway back to the story...As the frogs laughed hysterically, pieces of them began to fall off until they were only piles of stinking fly-attracting flesh that will never come back to life again. Or will they?

I'm just putting this out there so y'all can get used to it by the time I come back. My name is now Mitchell. It's not legal yet, as that would be a paperwork nightmare when combined with college and financial aid, but it will be legal as soon as possible.

So, yes. I will be changing my display name to reflect this. Just giving y'all a heads-up.

I just used the word 'y'all' twice (now three times), didn't I? Shame on me.

Meeting This Thursday

I already sent an email out earlier today but it never hurts to be repetitive when it comes to meetings. We are meeting this Thursday at 6 pm at Morrison Regional Library. I heard a rumor that Unkown Entities may show up this time. Is it true?

Also, to celebrate Thanksgiving, Clare is going to bring a dish of her special recipe, pumpkin yogurt. I can't wait.

Meg Rosoff's top 10 adult books for teenagers

Whenever I take a few minutes and try to find something worthy of posting here for the few that visit I always hope I can find something as perfect as this.

I was trying to think of an adult book or two I would add to this list. Maybe "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "Ender's Game."

Mmm...indignant rage

What's my favorite thing about working with the public? Today it's the lady who sent the wrong 35 page print job to the printer and got pissed off at me because I wouldn't refund her money. The best part was while she was adding money to her printing account so she could attempt her printing again, her cell phone started ringing. She looked up from the cash machine for a moment and let the phone ring so I could see how angry she was. Good for her.

Poet Musician

There is a local songwriter named David Childers that I am very fond of and he has a webpage where he writes occasional diary entries and poetry. Right now he has a poem up. Give it a gander while it's still on the front page. Powerful stuff.

A new poll

This is a very serious poll and your answers will be utilized to improve the quality of this blog.



Nominate a book

A friend of mine is involved with a bunch of bloggers that have created their own yearly award for Young Adult books. If you are curious you can see it here.

Pulling off your own head

A serious discussion on this subject here.

What kind of a name is R.A?

I don't recall his name ever coming up at one of our meetings but R.A. Salvatore is coming to town and he has personally invited you to come see him speak:

An Evening with R. A. Salvatore
On Friday, November 17, New York Times best-selling author R.A. Salvatore comes to the Wachovia Playhouse at ImaginOn: the Joe & Joan Martin Center to promote the final adventure in his Sellswords Trilogy: Road of the Patriarch! FREE and open to readers of all ages! A book signing will follow the presentation and books will be available for purchase from Joseph-Beth Booksellers. The doors open at 6:30 pm and seating is limited to 250. Co-sponsored by Joseph-Beth Booksellers and the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County
ImaginOn: The Joe & Joan Martin Center - The Wachovia Playhouse
11/17/2006 at 7pm
Age Range: All Ages
Contact: Kelly Czarnecki, 704-973-2717