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Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008
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7:41 am
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| Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
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5:14 pm
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As a huge Alan Rickman Fan, I really enjoyed this medley of Snape scenes to the tune of Simon and Garfunkle's "I am a Rock" ah, how easily I am entertained when my sinuses are so very pressured with the sick.
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1:51 pm - Since they don't seem to be getting the message...
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| Saturday, August 30th, 2008
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4:32 am - Books Received: Sly Mongoose, Zoe's Tale
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Since I just recently organized a panel at the Ann Arbor District Library featuring Tobias S. Buckell, John Scalzi, and Paul Melko, it was nice to come home a couple days later to find a copy of Toby's new book Sly Mongoose in the mail from Tor. I look forward to reading it.
 
John had given me Zoe's Tale that weekend, inscribed and all, and he swears he'd told me before that I was in the dedication, but when I opened the book (which is dedicated "for Karen Meisner and Anne KG Murphy And most especially for Athena") it struck me as does something you hadn't realized before, and I was sincerely touched.
I was even more touched once I'd read the book (which I'd meant to save for while camping this coming weekend, but once I started I couldn't put it down), and after I finished it and called John to chew him out for making me cry three times in an hour it occurred to me that I also wanted to point out, here, that I think this is John's best book so far (as, I believe, does he), and you should get it and read it and give it to all your teens and tweens and, well, just do. Because it's one of the best things I've read in years and I am, as John and several other author friends have told me, a harsh reader, so despite the obvious bias of my being John's friend and being in the dedication and all, I still think it's true. Zoe's Tale is everything fine literature should be, and hard-hitting SF to boot.
It's not that it stands alone apart from The Last Colony, in that there are holes in each other that both books fill (they happen in parallel time, told from different perspectives), but I think you can read Zoe's Tale first. And if that makes you want to read the rest of the "Old Man's War" series, well, that's fine too.
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4:32 am - I don't know why I'm up this early
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But there were things I wanted to do. Which I think had something to do with it.
Now that I've sorted out the books from my office shelves that I don't want to keep any more, and reorganized the pantry to have room for the snacks from the shelving unit I took out of the kitchen, I might go back to bed.
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| Thursday, August 28th, 2008
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2:18 pm - QOTD
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| Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
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5:32 pm - Get involved, have a good time. Donate to the cause.
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Obamathon
Saturday, September 13th
12:00pm - 4:00pm
Arbor Brewing Co.
114 E. Washington
Ann Arbor, MI
Coordinated by Washtenaw County Democratic Party, Michigan Democratic Youth Caucus, and Michiganders for Obama, and sponsored by Ann Arbor Brewing Company, this fundraiser for the national Obama campaign features local beer, local bands and local artists with fun for all. Obama Art, raffles, trivia contest, and much, much more! Come and join us and get fired up to take back our country!!!
ADMISSION:
Believer: $20- a beer & a brat
Changemaker: $50- all you can eat & drink
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7:54 am - I'm hosting the SMOS dinner friday, September 12 at 6 pm
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What is a SMOS dinner? Well, it's a gathering of geeks, generally those interested in and involved in Penguicon, but we welcome new people to the group.
On the 12th, I will be making hungarian goulash and also a vegetarian chili. Folks are invited to bring side dishes, deserts, etc, potluck style and your own drinks, though as usual the basement fridge will be full of pop/soda.
There are plenty of chairs and plenty of tables for game-playing, etc. It's a big house. Should be fun. Consider yourself invited.
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| Monday, August 25th, 2008
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4:40 pm - Oh internets... know anything about USB microphones?
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Subpress has hired me to do an audio version of a story and I want it to sound good. Yanni recommended I get the best USB mic I can find but... I'm lazy and don't like shopping. Anyone here know what I should get?
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| Sunday, August 24th, 2008
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10:53 am - New Underwear Week!
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Spread the word! The internationally celebrated holiday is upon us! New Underwear Week! The time to discard any underwear that has done its duty and deserves an honorable retirement and to purchase shiny (well, bright) new underwear to take its place. Treat yourself to new underwear this week!
Just in time for school starting. After all.
(Last year in honor of Half Naked Thursday I posted a picture of myself featuring new underwear. This year I will post another picture and I encourage everyone to join me in at least enjoying, if not revealing, new undies of their own.)
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| Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
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8:18 am - Tasty dinners: Salmon with shitake mushrooms
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Last night ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) flinx and dad came over and finished the porch roof, and I worked on scraping the peeling paint off of more of the screen frames. after that was all done, I hardly felt like cooking, but we needed dinner, so I proceeded with the plan I had from when I'd picked up Salmon and shitake mushrooms at the Produce Station:
Salmon with shitake mushrooms
* two servings salmon
* 1 tsp olive oil
* 1 TBSP sesame oil
* 2 TBSP butter
* 1/2 tsp minced ginger (I used the stuff in a jar)
* 2 scallions, sliced lengthwise to make thin slices, cut into short lengths
* 1-2 cups fresh shitake mushrooms
* dash of garlic salt
Lightly baste salmon with olive oil and broil at 400 degrees, roughly 7 minutes a side (for thick fillet)
While doing that, thinly slice mushroom caps (about a cup, sliced, but 2 cups is even better-may require more butter) and 2 scallions (green onions).
Heat 1 TBSP of sesame oil in a small skillet.
Add mushroom slices and saute until tender, but not overcooked.
Add 2 TBSP butter.
When butter is hot, add scallions, dash of garlic salt, and ginger. Mix well, saute for perhaps a minute, then turn off heat.
Serve salmon with mushroom sauce on top. The butter sauce will have a light, bright flavor thanks to the ginger. I simply made a light salad with lettuce, orange pepper, cucumber and carrots to go with it and it made a nice light meal.
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| Saturday, August 16th, 2008
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12:33 pm - Wheeeeee!
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They're tearing the roof off my porch!
Gail and Brian and Dad are pulling the fiberglass strips off the roof of the porch and Jamie is cleaning the porch door for painting. Allison's mom Caroline is here and has helped enormously with the prep, which is of course 80% of the work of a painting project. We've got the frame scraped and partly cleaned. Will finish cleaning once the roof is down, then the painting begins!
If you want to play with us, do stop by!
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| Thursday, August 14th, 2008
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11:00 am - Lessons from prepping the kitchen ceiling for painting
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a) You never quite realize how messy spiders are as neighbors until you clean the little spots of blood off the ceiling.
b) One ought to clean the light fixtures over the stove from time to time.
c) er, my kitchen (and connected hallway) is not exactly a small room.
First coat is on the lower level (that goes over the sink). First coat should go on the rest this afternoon. painters and cheerleaders (company to make sure I don't fall off the ladder) welcome this evening anytime after 7 to work on the second coat.
The house will be back to pseudonormal tomorrow for Microcoworking from 9 am to noon, and then at 2 we pull the furniture out of the back porch and start prepping (i.e. cleaning) the back porch in preparation for painting and re-roofing on Saturday.
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| Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
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11:54 am - Painting. You know you want to. :)
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I'm painting lots of my house and currently planning to paint the back porch on Saturday. Starting at 9 am we will lay out tarps and take off all the screen frames and the door, clean and paint them, pull the roof off, paint the frame, put a new roof on, and put the screens and door back on. None of this is technically hard, but many hands will make it go much faster, so if you can help please stop by. We could also use non-painters willing to entertain young kids - let me know if you're up for that. We'll order out for lunch, and there is lots of beer and pop and such. And sunscreen.
If you're free Thursday evening or Friday during the day and would like to help prep (and paint the kitchen ceiling if we haven't finished it by then), that would be cool too.
Address: 509 Dartmoor Rd, Ann Arbor, MI, 48103
Phone: 734-649-4534
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| Monday, August 11th, 2008
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7:14 am - Author swap on August 24th event at AADL
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I think I posted before, there's a science fiction discussion and book signing Sunday, August 24 at the Ann Arbor district library at 2 pm. Karl Schroeder was going to be on it but had to step off the panel due to health reasons. Paul Melko will be taking his place.
Paul Melko is a science fiction author who lives outside of columbus, OH. Paul's fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, Spider Magazine, The Year's Best Science Fiction, and other magazines and anthologies. Singularity's Ring, his first novel, was released from Tor in February 2008 and a science fiction collection, Ten Sigmas and Other Unlikelihoods, was released from Fairwood Press in March 2008. His novella "The Walls of the Universe" was nominated for the Sturgeon, Nebula, and Hugo Awards in 2007.
His website is at http://www.paulmelko.com/
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| Sunday, August 10th, 2008
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2:10 am - Nice ending to the day
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It's been an interesting day. Near the end I had a fabulous conversation with Peter Fox about my start-up (among other topics), near the end of which he referred me to a quote by Goethe which I just looked up:
Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.
Boldness has genius and power in it.
Also should say "Congrats!" to all the Hugo winners. I'm especially delighted to see Stardust on the list, and Stephan Martiniere for best artist (you may recall how much I gushed over his cover for Jay Lake's Mainspring last year), John Scalzi as Fan Writer and Brad Foster as Fan Artist. I just met Brad in person at Apollocon for the first time about a month ago but I have known his fan art for years and know he's done some wonderful projects both long ago and very recently; great to see him getting the recognition he deserves. And David G. Hartwell. Everybody, really, Kudos.
And now, to bed.
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| Saturday, August 9th, 2008
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10:01 am - Having a great time at Scifoo
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Yesterday I got in just in time for lunch. Hooked up by happenstance with Carl and Anna Dietrich, of Terrafugia and walked to a place nearby. After a tasty Indian lunch I came back to the hotel and met my roommate, Shivani Sud, and then got back together with Anna and Carl to head over to Google early and help unload and set up their flying car roadable aircraft proof of concept vehicle:
It was nice hanging around onsite during set up and as people arrived. We had dinner and collected Shwag (including the Solio Universal charger -- Solar charger for lots of devices -- various books and notebooks from O'Reilly, and a stainless steel water bottle that looks designed to get you in trouble at the airport)and admired the Tesla electric car (the fast one) and then had a session of introductions (can you describe your interests in three words, no sentences?), started putting together the session schedule, and mingled and chatted, and chatted some more. I met three other people from Michigan, including one who went to the same elementary school as I did! (albiet much earlier than I).
As far as people I already knew here, I've chatted with Chris DiBona, Brother Guy, Neal Stephenson, and Mike Gaiman; I didn't recognize Mike when I first walked past him, but he called out to me and I recognized his voice immediately. :) I was excited to meet Esther Dyson but didn't really get a chance to chat with her so far.
I was given my first toy pretty early on -- some sun-chargeable glowing "Kryptonite" in a little bottle from Simon Quellen Field, of Kinetic Microscience (Science toys). I also really enjoyed meeting and speaking with Shankar Subramaniam of UCSD, Eleanor Rieffel, who is a mathematician (we got into a great discussion at dinner advising a fellow camper whose 9-year-old daughter is really good at math at what to give her to explore and do), Kevin Grazier, who is a science adviser to various sci-fi TV shows including BSG, and Mike Hendrickson, who is a publisher at O'Rielly.
I think my favorite three-word self summary (and I didn't catch who said it) was "Think, play, repeat." That seems to be what we're planning to do here this weekend.
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| Friday, August 8th, 2008
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3:28 pm - Arrived in Sunnyvale, CA
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I am on the ground at the Wild Palms hotel for Scifoo and about to walk to lunch with some folks I met in the lobby. Will post more later.
Highlight of flight was showing off my iPhone to my seat neighbor, a fellow who worked for the telephone company as an engineer before he retired 35 years ago. Also did some reading on Learning Python.
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| Thursday, August 7th, 2008
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5:09 pm
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I'm taking it easy today, prepping for my trip to scifoo. One of the things I did was print more business cards, since they are handy when you want to give someone a small something with a note and your email address. I like printing cards on demand because then I can change them on a whim. I made some more serious ones, but this is my new design for scifoo, and I kind of like it:
One of my theater tech directors used to often tell me, "Done is good! It's not rocket science." But then, sometimes it is. And when I'm not doing physics and designing control systems and interfaces, I'm a proofreader. So sweating the small stuff is good.
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| Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
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11:39 pm - I won't be around this Saturday, but if YOU are:
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The Dance Gallery Foundation is having a garage sale. The studio is closing its doors and the foundation will be selling off office/interior items, and a few costumes. Items range from chairs, to computers, office supplies, etc.
This Saturday 8/9/08 9am-1pm
At Dance Gallery
815 Wildt St
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
My last day of class there will be Thursday. It's kind of sad. Jeef and I were just talking about what I should do next. If anyone hears of any tryouts for local musical plays with singing and dancing in them, let me know.
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