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.