kaolin fire

This will probably be one of two posts I make promoting GUD Issue 3. The second will announce that it's actually available for order (though you can, of course, buy a subscription starting with issue 2 right now). This is announcing the Issue 3 Pre-launch Buzz Contest. First 10 entries get a PDF of Issue 3 before it's available for sale. But the contest goes for a week, and presuming we get the minimum 100 entries we're shooting for, one winner will get a full set of GUD, hardcopy (that means issues 0-3)! How cool is that? ;)

contest details, the gorgeous cover, and a table of contents overlaying teasers for the art =)

And of course, in your GUD account right now is a freebie from Issue 3. Don't have an account? It'll be waiting for you as soon as you create one. ;)

Or if not _it_ (perhaps there are an infinitude of them), at least _one_. "Consciousness" is a phenomenon, like "Physics". All consciousness is the same phenomenon operating on differing contexts.

That reads to me like I'm not saying anything at all, but the concept of consciousness in phenomenological debates is often problematic to me. Somehow. Somewhere. We are conscious, therefore we assume x, y, quifnut.

And like physics, paired particles of consciousness can (possibly) influence each other across long distances, yeah?

Just a thought. :) Feel free to shoot a billion holes in it. Or ask "Why?" because that's a big enough hole in itself, I think. It came from reading a proof of the existence of a creator (not any particular creator, just something outside of this spacetime), and trying to find the right words... I haven't quite found the right words, but I've got too much workworkwork and playworkwork to focus on it the way it requires just now.

[[Oh, and--previous post--I am not a unique and beautiful snowflake, of course. I've had my #1 broken twice now.]]

ETA: this is what got me started, give or take. I've done a poor job of summarizing its key points.

[given that it is believed to be four-dimensionally static, to an extent], the reality that we live within and perceive must have been sequentially created (thus accounting for the obvious causes and effects we observe) in a higher dimensional time, [...] and then became static, exactly as a painting does upon completion. Quite simply, a cause must precede its effect within existence, which cannot be the case if both the cause and the effect have always existed simultaneously.

Unique Things: Has Anyone Done Them?

Seems at least a half dozen people on my friend's list have done this overnight.

* Post 3 things you've done in your lifetime that you don't think anybody else on your friends list has done.
* See if anybody else responds with "I've done that." If they have, you need to add another!(2.b., 2.c., etc...)
* Have your friends cut & paste this into their journal to see what unique things they've done in their life.

1) released a moderately popular add-on for a wildly popular DOOR game (okay, who remembers what DOOR games are?) [[ three, sort of, actually; one for LORD and one for both LORD and LUNATIX ]] nibot not only remembers, but released a moderately+ popular add-on for LORD. The worst part is trying to remember if I'd known that at some point because it seems like it would have come up given other context I remember...

1a) won a radio call-in contest? ((I figure this is a common enough occurrence but still odds are in my favor that nobody else on my friends list has even tried to win something like that)) :) I just happened to be a passenger in a car when something I wanted was offered and ... I don't remember if you had to be caller n or first caller with right answer or something. Tickets to a classical performance in SF. :) Nope nope. zekedragon won tickets to a thing he was so disinterested in he won't even describe it. ;)

1b) Was given a free account to an adult site as part of a job interview (I was doing the interviewing--the adult site in question was relevant work experience by the interviewee; this is probably specific enough that nobody else will get it? It was an interesting experience, anyway).

2) had a site listed as a yahoo site of the day (my really big claim to fame so far. yes, it is a very small really big claim to fame. sadly, poemranker has lost its verve. toying with trying to revive it, some...)

3) dropped my motorcycle on the bay bridge. Barely hurt for sliding from ~ 70mph.

random notes that didn't qualify for top 3:
x. created a role-playing character that others still play ten years later.
y. built a mars colony (umm. right. ;) it was a first or second grade project that I barely remember.
z. officially taught a high school class when I was 18; unofficially taught a high school class half the year when I was 16.

I was recently reminded of this quiz I wrote ... a long, long time ago.

"From Your Mother's Sleep" went live on AlienSkin Magazine yesterday or so in their June/July 2008 issue. If you're a regular friend of this journal, you probably have already read it--but it's here (for now?).

Soft in the moon-dark, spongiform vegetation underfoot; she sleeps, and you are her dream. A wisp of chill stirs your soft fur and hastens your step. Your heart warms.

You know not of what she dreams, but you know still that there is only one passing of the moon to find it. Compulsions lead you.

read more...

I need to read the whole issue, myself. Still need to read the latest Night Train, too. ((The "cover" is a photo I took the last time I went camping)).

Today, though, we're hunting the mythical beast Emptyus Apartmentus.

Three hours into implementing a nifty idea, I (of course) came across an even simpler method. Upside: I learned auto-complete is pretty damned easy in .NET 3.0. Downside? Some wasted time, and I installed Visual C++ Express 2008 (see: wasted time).

Anyway, the short of it is: I wanted to be able to start->run the programs I've got in my quick launch toolbar. I was going to steal windows-r and make my own start run that added the quick launch to the search path, basically (and when I put it like that, well, that's exactly (and _all_) you have to do!). Well, you don't get the supercool autocomplete, but:

Add your quicklaunch bar directory to your PATH. Done. ((It's something like C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch)) <-- I was looking for how to find that directory programatically. ((that's where it will be pre-vista, anyway; vista I don't have a box just this moment to look at, but it won't be under "documents and settings")).

Where I saw the "easy" solution, and more ideas here.

Even cooler is apparently you _can_ turn on autocomplete with the "run" bar, as per turn autocompletion on for the run command. You wouldn't think it had anything to do with anything, but if you go into IE, internet options, advanced: "Use inline AutoComplete for Web Addresses". BAM! Autocomplete in start->run (aka Win-R). caveat on this--it only works for things you've typed previously, it seems.

Tags: programming, start menu, windows

Consider this a "get to know my friends better" :) ((spawned by noticing more people listen to metal than I would have guessed))

Poll #1194763 music preferences
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Do you listen to:

Do you listen to:

* What was the last story you read?

It's hard to keep track (and we're not counting slush, of course, right?) I read through "Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears" last week. I know I'm in the middle of a number of things. I think the last story I read was one of my own, trying to figure out what I should send out for rejection (er, I mean, send out as a submission). The last short story I read... the last story in "Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears"--"The Printer's Daughter" by Delia Sherman. Highly recommended. :) I really ought to have read the new Firebox Fiction over at Night Train but haven't gotten there yet...

* What was the last poem you read?

I was skimming MySpace bulletins and there was one guy posting some interesting stream-of-consciousness stuff that might count as poetry. Besides that, probably something on poemranker. The last _published_ piece of poetry I read was something by Neil Gaiman ("The White Road" in "Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears").

* What was the last comic you read?

I read twenty+ comics daily-ish. ((some are TTh, some MWF, some just M, some just F, etc...)) I think the last one I read was The Road to God Knows, as the reminder for that went out late (for some reason I haven't added it to my "all comics" bookmarks folder--but he sends out a reminder every Monday so I know I won't forget). That reminds me I also have Murky Depths on my pile to read--lots of comics in there, and I'm looking forward to them. :)

* What was the last movie you watched?

I just watched the first three Indiana Jones movies (my wife had apparently never seen them). They were both better and worse than I remembered. Temple of Doom seriously annoyed me--and I remember The Last Crusade being really annoying, but I enjoyed it this time around (maybe in comparison to Temple of Doom). Amusing thing is we borrowed them on VHS--strange experience.

* What song are you listening to now? Say something about it--what it means to you, who introduced you to it, something like that.

I'm listening to a "genetically refined" radio station via Pandora radio--started it out with some Acid Bath and have trained it with my preferences from there. Right now, "Land of Blood" by Death Angel just started... I don't know anything about them, but odds are I'll like the song. :)

* What's your guilty-reading pleasure?

My daily comics :)

* Say something about the last poem you wrote!

Wuf. I haven't really written poetry in ages, but I've been trying to breathe a little life into poemranker of late--the last poem I wrote was a haiku entitled "Modern Stupidity". If you really want to know, you can find it from that. ;)

* Say something about a story you're writing now!

I haven't really written any fiction in ages, either. The biggest thing I'm "in the middle of" is DFN (stands for Dark Fantasy Novel). I haven't touched it in half a year, maybe a year--I wrote a few chapters then scrapped it, and have been tryign to refine the outline so I'm sure I've got something that I can write to (I don't usually do outlines, but I figure I might as well try as nothing else has worked to get me to finish a novel yet).

* If you were a fictional character, who would be writing you?

At a guess, I'd say Vonnegut.

* Last story you recommended to someone?

See above ;)

* And a link to your favorite magazine, because they probably need your help. ;)

Ooh! Ooh! http://www.gudmagazine.com/

* Lastly, link to a friend's copy of this quiz!

buffysquirrel :)

Are you at WisCon? I meant to get more stuff together but had a series of minor catastrophes. My understanding is that we have copies of Issue 0 through 2 available at the speculative literature foundation table (along with several other fine presses).

We'd intended to set up some digital freebies for WisCon attendees. If there's anyway you could get something onto the table announcing that, I'd be in your debt.

Apparently, the Greek χρυσομηλιά (chrysomelia) and Latin pomum aurantium both literally describe oranges as "golden apples."

Eris' apple of discord, an orange?

ellen_datlow periodically offers out books she's edited to folks willing to blog about them. After missing quite a few, I chanced on an offering that had not entirely been accounted for. My prize was Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears - "A modern book of adult fairytales", the third in a volume of six of fairytale re-tellings that are currently being reprinted.

As I'm behind on an embarrassing number of things at the moment, I'd intended to mention a few things about it as my "payment" and later get on to reading it more fully; but life conspired to give me several dozen hours over the last few days to read through the collection (in between waiting for various windows updates, re-install attempts, etc, etc). I finished the final story after being up for over twenty-four hours, waiting for xp service pack 3 to finish "preparing" for installation.

There's a wide range of tellings in this collection (and some stories get re-told multiple times), with a few poems sprinkled in to boot, as well as an educational introduction (the history of fairytales may not be what you think, if The Brothers Grimm is the extent of your education; I recommend this introduction as well as Angela Slatter's history of Little Red Riding Hood in Apex Science Fiction & Horror Digest #12 to whet your appetite for further reading); and finishes with its own section of recommended reading.

Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears surprised me with the sheer volume of stories it contained -- 22 tales in all (some of those in poem form). While some of the stories felt tied too strongly to the original and others seemed to stray too far afield, where elements from the original seemed tacked on for the comparison--enough hit that "just so" I found myself wanting. I was impressed by the solidity of the collection as a whole, and there is much novelty within.

Highlights for me included... a good chunk of the book, in retrospect, so I'll first limit myself to mentioning the stories that I would recommend with no reservations (though perhaps that leaves me with not enough to actually say about each piece; I'm two hours in to writing this and editing it, and so I have to leave well enough alone...):

"The Emperor Who Had Never Seen a Dragon" by John Brunner was a treat from beginning to end; And while the end was perhaps too human and not "fantastic" enough, it worked perfectly regardless (and I have to admit that that was part of the whole point). The characterizations are rich, the writing both colorful and swift, and the plot fully satisfying. A despotic emperor is tricked into receiving his just reward.

"Billy Fearless" by Nancy A. Collins is told with spot-on fairytale prose, fairytale logic, and fairytale humor. It's a romp through and through, and it ... just ... works. :) Billy Fearless conquers a haunted house through sheer bullheadedness and Southern hospitality.

"Match Girl" by Anne Bishop, for a different mood, is pure horrific beauty, and definitely puts the adult in the adult fairytales. This story is explicit and brutal, but not, in my opinion, gratuitous. Each brutality deepens the empathy we have for "the little match girl's" predicament, her world, and deepens the beauty and payoff of her final escape.

"The Fox Wife" by Ellen Steiber ... wrapped me up in its mythos and made me wish we could have had it for GUD (of course, that was true for a number of stories but this was the first one that slapped me upside the face with that feeling). The story is of a merchant's daughter's marriage to an older samurai, from the perspective of her maidservant. A Japanese trickster spirit takes home in the wife, empowering her to a much-deserved end. Rich, beautiful, complex, and full...

"The Printer's Daughter" by Delia Sherman is a beautiful period tale of a printer and his desire for a companion; the granting thereof and the entire historical context are amazingly woven and brilliantly written; this was one of the few stories that was purely heartwarming (with perhaps a twinge of bitter-sweet), but it was in no way lesser for that.

And then there are those stories I'd only recommend if I knew a person's tastes better:

"The Crossing" by Joyce Carol Oates is a tale of life, sleep, and death, and the tricks memory plays on us. It's a rather complex take, focused on Martha (the sleeping beauty), with brief interludes from her prince charming. Martha dreams she's reunited with her Aunt, who is practically a foil of her own failing mind, though she does not realize it. This story plays on memory much in the way of Umberto Eco's "The Flame of Queen Loana", but does it in a much more satisfying manner. The only caveats I would have in recommending it to someone is that it is a slow read and, for me, a rather nihilistic and depressing ending.

"Brother Bear" by Lisa Goldstein retells Goldilocks, and is several steps removed from it; the core of the story is different, twined with native american folklore, but the elements of Goldilocks combine cleanly and without jarring. Quick, the Goldilocks of the tale, is caught in flagrante delicto by the three bears; whereupon she is made wife by one of them and takes on their tribe. As I don't seem to be able to do it any form of justice in summarizing it, I'll just say that my only quibble in recommending is that I felt her time among the bears could have been fleshed out more, as well as her being reunited with her original tribe and the consequences of that.

"The Huntsman's Story" by Milbre Burch I'd recommend to anyone who derives pleasure from meta-fiction; this delves quickly into the psyche of "The Huntsman" from Snow White from an omniscient point of view and tells an even darker tale. It's short--very short--and the end perhaps a touch moralizing, but good for reading and discussion all the same.

Many of the stories I'm not mentioning were more than well written, often even engaging, but for some reason or other left me unsatisfied (and for the most part I can't seem to put my finger on why, or I'd put that forth). As with any collection this size, I'm sure you'll find room to both agree and disagree with my impressions; and if you are a lover of fiction of any sort, there's likely more than enough here to satisfy you and perhaps even inspire you for a time.

Keith Olbermann calls out Das President... it is oh so beautifully done:

http://www.matthewgood.org/2008/05/olbermanns-recent-special-comment/

Wow and just wow.

12 minutes of pure, unadulterated hatred, beautifully wrought, beautifully aimed.

In order to spread Detritus, I posted a "Let's Play" of it over at Something Awful. I tried to do a funny voice-over for it, but I think at best I managed "dorky", and at worst some sort of ... well ... yeah. Anyway, it spawned a great response: a handful of SA folks played the game while reading some of my quotes and some of my (truly horrible) poetry.

First, my attempt:



Then, their response:



You've got to have a sense of humor. :)

How is your small press doing?

Apex Science Fiction & Horror Digest seems to be becoming the NPR or PBS of science fiction--they're doing another subscription drive (and if I can scrape the funds together I'll be pitching in to help). ((Well, no... Strange Horizons wins at the NPR of science fiction, I think--their business model is our annual donations--and they seem to do well enough with that!))

And Opium Magazine is also trying to undo some accidentally creative math and figure out its long term survival.

GUD is still an infant, and as such blatantly in the red--but I don't feel that we quite have the emotional capital built up to go begging, yet (and how sad of a statement is it that I'm looking forward to the day that we have that sort of emotional capital? though I do hope that by the time we've got it, we don't need it in that way)).

I'm thinking I'll do a blogpost over at GUD about all this, but I'd like to make it more personal than the usual "the sky is falling, short genre fiction markets are dying, etc, etc". I'd like to make it more of a call to action for those who seem to need it most at the moment. (and of course, maybe get GUD a little reciprocal or "splash" notice from all that, too, right? maybe? :) )

Hell, my knowledge of this last one is completely tangential and it's not really a short fiction thing at all, but I figure it should be mentioned in the same breath... the Whatcom Independent is struggling in a bad way. You probably have never heard of it (I hadn't) as it's a very localized print thing that has nothing to do with my area of the world, but that's the benefit and curse of the internet age. :)

Detritus - a free 3d asteroids shmup for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux ... it's free ... it's cool ... it's fun ... it helps GUD with a tiny spit of advertising on the goodbye screen if you dont meta-q or alt-F4 out of it. ;)



http://www.erif.org/code/detritus/

1.0.5 is much improved over 1.0.3 (see changelog), now available for Mac OS X, Windows, or compile-it-yourself for Linux. :)

If you're not reading Freak Angels, that's probably because you haven't heard of it. But seriously, you should be reading it. The storyline is just ramping up (post-midwich cuckoos/midnight's children post-apoc sort of thing). The art is grittily gorgeous, characters well imagined, yadda, yadda, just... go read it. Dude.

23 years ago, 12 strange children were born in England at the exact same moment. 6 years ago, the world ended. This is the story of what happened next.

And while you're at it, have you been reading The Road to God Knows...? Both comics update multiple pages once per week. :) TRTGK just hit a big moment, so scurry back and read up to it. :) It's a rather intense emotional drama coming of age thing set in the 80's. :)

A friend tells me that playing Samurai of Legend is making him more productive. He says he doesn't know how. But I can tell you he definitely had a spurt of productivity, so who am I to say--




And of course if you sign up through that link he gets some sort of bennies.

While I'm at it, some friends are very into Travian, so here's a link for them.

I'm avoiding both for the moment. Though if you've got an OS X box, I could really use feedback on my asteroids game - Detritus 1.0.5rc1 (dmg) as an OS X experience...

Amazingly useful article to figure out how much and what sort of memory a given windows-OS computer has:

What kind of memory does my computer have installed?

The short of it is two links:

• System Information for Windows (executable)


• Crucial Memory Advisor (active-x control)

From Damn Interesting:

Operation Pastorius - how two insiders foil a Nazi plot and get thrown in jail for 6 years.

Does anyone know if it's good for small businesses, too, or is it only a "real people" thing?