| A Softer World: Oct 9 |
[Oct. 9th, 2008|11:39 am] |
http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=362
Oh man. Do we ever have something awesome lined up for the three weeks leading to Halloween. Halloween is OUR HOLIDAY. It is the best time of the year.
STAY TUNED |
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| Does this make me a futurist? Gross. |
[Oct. 7th, 2008|05:20 pm] |
Google's solution to a "certain problem" is to have the user answer some math questions within a time limit at certain hours of the night, on Friday and Saturday.
But me, I get drunk and send inappropriate emails at all hours of the day.
(thanks to everyone who emailed me this!) |
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| about the same |
[Oct. 4th, 2008|12:01 pm] |
I am reading Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut, and it's so good. I had seen the movie, with Bruce Willis as Dwayne Hoover, a few years back, and enjoyed it, but it didn't seem like the kind of book I'd enjoy reading. The book, it turns out, is a very different thing. I like it quite a lot. I like the simplicity and obviousness of it. The repetition. The awkwardness. I'm really enjoying it, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Have you read it? I suspect a lot of people have. I am always late to the party. But at least I showed up!
Thanks to everyone who came to Word on the Street last Sunday. I had a lot of fun, even though I mostly told stupid jokes through the whole thing. When I am around large crowds of people I behave in a very different way from how I normally act. It's a bit childish, I guess. Or, anyway, it's what I've done SINCE I was a kid. I tell a lot of jokes, most of them in poor taste, and then afterward I feel like a bit of a goof. Even in groups of people I know really well and like, this happens. I work much better in a one on one sort of scenario. You know, in a group you kind of PLAY your own character? But one on one you can have actual conversations and think about things and act in a way that is more natural and human and that time is more worthwhile. Maybe it's just because in a crowd of people you can't really understand and interact with that many people at once? It's a lot to keep track of. I feel like, maybe everyone is like this. They must be. But not everybody becomes the class clown all the time, even though they're almost thirty years old. Oh well, without personality flaws, I guess I'd have nothing to obsess over in the depths of hangover shame?
Did you hear about The Craigslist Bank Robber? I just heard about it this morning, at breakfast. Ryan was telling me about it. The world needs more awesome heists. |
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[Oct. 3rd, 2008|11:16 am] |
http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=360
Hello! Did you know we have new prints for sale? That is a fact. Three new prints. Which ones? Go and see!
What else? Oh! Were you aware that Loose Teeth have a new book out? I did not write it. it was written by Zach VandeZande, who you might remember from the delightful and charming comic, Animals Have Problems Too. They are posting the book online, chapter by chapter!
WHAT ELSE? I know! I hope you have a very nice weekend. Maybe someone will catch your eye and you'll both smile and that'll be that. No complications. No heartbreak. Just that one warm moment! OR Maybe you'll get wicked laid. It's a magical world. |
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| A Softer World: Oct 1st |
[Oct. 1st, 2008|10:57 am] |
http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=359
I was thinking about joining some kind of chess club, or going and taking part in tournaments. I think probably I will be brutalized, but it sounds fun and it'll get me out of the house! I feel like, if I get out of the house more, those neighbourhood children I keep locked in the basement will feel like they have a chance to escape! And that little bit of hope is the REAL torture. Am I right? |
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| A Softer World: Sep 30th |
[Sep. 30th, 2008|12:54 pm] |
http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=358
My kitty came home, and I have a new story in the halloween issue of Taddle Creek which is dirty as all hell, and about lesbians and murderesses and is called "And then the werewolf"
http://www.taddlecreekmag.com/ I think you can buy it online there. Seth did the cover for the magazine, and it looks great. |
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| Emmett! |
[Sep. 29th, 2008|11:04 am] |
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She came home! |
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| i start reading wikipedia and amazon and then it is three hours later |
[Sep. 25th, 2008|10:22 pm] |
I keep stumbling across books I love that I had forgotten about.
1. Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution is the perfect book about the joy of learning how things work I think. Especially learning how things work when people don't want you to know. It's a history book, too, but really this book is about a sense of wonder and curiosity and playful rebellion that I think is important. Or anyway, it's important to me. The title refers to hackers in the old school, MIT sense, not in the hacking into networked systems sense. Though they paved the way for that. You can read the first couple chapters at Project Gutenberg. This book is about wanting to understand computer systems and to play with them and make them do new things, and it so perfectly captures the magic of getting your hands on something, of learning a programming language or developing a way for users to share a computer, and learning how something works.
2. The man who loved only numbers I can't remember much about this book, to be honest. It's about a mathematician who had no social skills really, who relied on other people to care for him, put him up, make his food, but who was a genius. Who solved problems and worked with hundreds of other mathematicians, co-writing papers with them. Who won grants and gave all the money away. It was such an offbeat and strange story. I do remember that I loved it. I'm a sucker for stories of people who devote their lives to the pursuit of obsessions. The author, Paul Hoffman, wrote a book last year about his father's obsession with chess, which sounded amazing, and Maggie bought it for me, though I have yet to read it through. No time? And yet I have watched 27 hours of television this week. So.
3. The Hacker and the Ants by Rudy Rucker. Rucker is so perfectly weird and silly. I really enjoy his books. This was a good one, and his Master of Space and Time book. He's probably best known for the Freeware, Software, Wetware series. But these one-offs are the ones that I loved. He's such a damned hippy, like all the people behind Linux and perl, you know? He just fit so exactly into the world I admired when I was reading these. He became a real part of my love and understanding of science fiction and computers.
4. headcrash by Bruce Bethke. I haven't read this in years, but remember thinking it was hilarious. Silly and smart at once. A lot of people compare this to snow crash, but at the time I remember thinking it was more like if microserfs had been exciting and funnier. I should try to find a copy and reread this.
5. The Diamond Age. I haven't read anything since Cryptonomicon, and I do think that was his best book, but The Diamond Age is the book of Neal Stephenson's that I love the most. What are those new books of his like? The baroque cycle? Has he written anything else? I enjoyed Zodiac, too, though I think maybe it wouldn't stand up to a reread now.
6. Transmetropolitan. This was my favourite comic for a very long time. It took everything great about cyberpunk and science fiction and mixed it with all the best angry and sentimental elements of Hunter S. Thompson. If the combination of those two things doesn't seem perfect to you, then you are a very different person from teen Joey. There are other Warren Ellis comics that I love, but Transmet is just a huge touchstone in my comic appreciation I guess. It's where I realized that comics were more than the Spider-man and things I had been reading up until then. I know that it was Watchmen who did this for a lot of other people, and he gets lumped in with Alan Moore a lot, but I think he's very different.
Anyway, I suspect that you would have found teen joey sort of enthusiastically obnoxious. I kind of miss him. |
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| A Softer World: Sep 24th |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|12:40 pm] |
http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=356
I bought a box set of hacker movies for like ten bucks. it was War Games, Hackers and Antitrust. I hadn't seen any of them in years.
War Games is kind of amazing. The military stuff at the beginning is so good, where the airforce man refuses to launch the warheads. You find out that this was a test, and that 22% of them refused to launch, and this is why they switch to a more automated system. It's a fun movie that really holds up. All the war dialing stuff is great.
Hackers is a movie that a lot of people probably would enjoy because of how terrible it is. Characters spout ill-researched hacker "facts" constantly, and rollerblade everywhere and use the most ridiculous lingo in real life situations. It would be hilarious I guess, if it weren't trying so hard to be cool. I don't know. I have a soft spot for it in my memory, I guess, and it's hard to hate it. But I turned it off after 40 minutes.
I also turned off Antitrust. I just found it boring.
But I was thinking about what three movies WOULD make a good hacker box set. I think War Games belongs for sure, and also Sneakers. I haven't rewatched Sneakers yet, but everything I remember seems excellent. I hope it stands up, and from reviews it sounds like it does.
But then what? Lately I have really been itching to get my hands on Max Headroom: 20 minutes into the future, which I remembered being awesome 80's cyberpunk. But cyberpunk is kind of different from what I have in my head for an ideal hacker movie. Both War Games and Sneakers are sort of based in reality. With the exception of the main plot devices, the black box in Sneakers and the AI in wargames, they're not really science fiction.
Foolproof maybe would be closer to what I want! It's not about hacking computers at all, but they practice committing the perfect crimes over and over. Picking locks in speed tests. Bypassing physical security. It's hacking in its basic sense. And it's a fun movie, too!
War Games, Sneakers, and Foolproof! That's the best hacking box set, I think. Based on what I've seen. There are movies I haven't seen. 23 is one that people talk about a lot.
Also, lately I've been watching a lot of Supernatural. Fuck I love this show. I think this might be the best horror television show ever. Don't get me wrong, I like Buffy, but with the exception of Hush, and a few scattered moments, Buffy wasn't horror. It used monsters and lore from horror, and made something else out of it. A sort of dark fantasy. Supernatural is quite often horror. It tries to scare you.
There are over-arcing plots too, but it's the monster of the week stories that really get me. Season two has an episode called "Everyone loves a clown" that is one of the creepiest episodes of television ever. I just appreciate that they're really trying for scares. it doesn't always work, but I really appreciate that there's someone on TV doing actual horror.
And I reread Tekkon Kinkreet: Black and White, and it was even better on this reread. I think that I might like this better than anything else I've read this year. It is rigt up there with my other favourite comics, The Invisibles, and Sleeper, and Sam & Max.
Anyway, I am rambling! I hope your Wednesday is going well! We hope you like today's comic. |
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| what do you do when an indoor kitty gets out in a big city? |
[Sep. 20th, 2008|01:51 pm] |
We called the humane society, and local vets. This is a poster that Maggie has been putting up around the neighbourhood where the kitty got out. I walked around with her this morning, calling. What else do people do to find lost kitties? |
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| i don't work for you |
[Sep. 19th, 2008|08:58 pm] |
memes were meant to be broken
1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.
 |
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| A Softer World: Sep 19th |
[Sep. 19th, 2008|09:52 am] |
http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=355
The end! OR IS IT? (hint: yes it is the end)
My birthday is in one week. Yes, next friday I will be 28 years old.
One day, I suspect, I will be a man. |
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| tor.com |
[Sep. 17th, 2008|01:31 pm] |
Also, the science fiction website Tor.com is publishing exclusive ASW comics with a sci fi theme!
Here is number one. |
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| A Softer World: Sep 17th |
[Sep. 17th, 2008|11:03 am] |
http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=354
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on the PSP is awesome. All I do is force choke people and pull down giant statues to hit people with them. Satisfying and awesome. That is my review.
Programming perl on DSLinux is also awesome. The font is tiny, but I think I've figured out how to change it. That will be today's project. I know that it is only microperl, but it is just awesome to play around with perl and regular expressions again, and on my nintendo? Excellent. |
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| Mario of the living dead. |
[Sep. 15th, 2008|11:49 am] |
I wrote something. Maybe if you have some time, you could try and draw something for it? It's not for publication or anything. Just for internet fun. Zombies? Video games?
It’s much darker down here in the sewers. I have to get home to her.
I don’t see any of those things yet. But there’s still weird, insistent music coming from somewhere. The notes are deeper, faster. Everything is blue, dark blue, black down here.
The floor is solid cement, and the walls are brick. I don’t understand what kind of function a sewer like this could serve. Where’s the water? There are little brick walls, standing everywhere. The brick is crumbling. There’s something shining inside of one. I can see it.
I smash the bricks. It’s just a few coins. Bricked into this little wall. Nothing. I smash the bricks. Nothing. I smash another block of bricks. I’m not even really looking for anything. The bricks are there, I smash them. If I find some more change, fine. If not, that’s okay. I smash the bricks. There’s some kind of plant, bright and alive. A flower, down underground. It’s almost glowing, it’s so beautiful. I don’t know how something so precious could survive down here. I wrap my fist around it. I pull it out by its roots. I eat it.
----
I can’t even tell whether every part of them is human. They’re stitched together. Their heads are too big for their bodies. They look like experiments gone wrong. Fat, stupid little bastards. I could sit on this wall all day and they would just bumble back and forth, bumping into one another. They have big eyes. Like babies. It almost makes them cute, except that you can see a patch of something recognizable, here and there, a square of stretched skin across the face with a human ear on it. A finger where there shouldn’t be a finger. This is just reanimated meat, stitched into a ball with legs. A lump of dead, rotting people with big sad baby eyes. I could leave them here. I could jump across to the next wall. They won’t follow.
Instead, I jump down, and my boot drives the first one’s skull into the ground. The bones in its head feel disconnected even before I grind down with my boot. The second one is walking away. He bumps into the wall and turns back toward me. Big eyes. Stretched, tight smile. He doesn’t even look down at his friend.
---- |
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| The Show That Smells |
[Sep. 13th, 2008|10:21 am] |
The Show That Smells by Derek McCormack is an insane and awesome book about fashion designer vampires, old time carnivals, Lon Chaney, Coco Chanel, and the Carter Family as vampire hunting singers. I am going to try and describe how silly and bent this book is, but I don't think I'm going to be able to do it justice. On the back there's a quote from Guy Madden ("the most delightfully innovative charmer of a book- a mini-masterpiece that keeps swelling with invention after you've put it down."), and that cover picture is a sculpture by David Altmejd.
An old time country music carnival vampire book that takes place in a mirror maze! It is hilarious and dark and it makes me want to write a Halloween book. This is a book that probably isn't for everyone. There's some gay and lesbian sex. Lots of gore. Lots of Statler and Waldorf style bad jokes about the gore! (I know, I said it's not for everyone, and now I'm making it sound AWESOME) And the language is sometimes a TRICK instead of a TREAT, or as well as a treat? I like tricks. So, maybe I will type out some of my favourite parts so you can see why I love this book so much.
( Here are some bits from The Show That Smells, LJ-CUT for length ) |
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