![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small}
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
(up through dunsany, to be exact.)
i'm incredibly excited about being able to easily walk to multiple bookstores (including cellar stories) and record stores.
i've also decided that i'm going to be building, along with the drawer units to store my dvds, another drawer unit to store my cds.
while i like having them up against the wall and looking oh so pretty, i think it's more important at this point to have a living space that feels slightly roomier and that my partner can decorate more, especially since i tend to enjoy her decorating tastes.
the past few months have been an interminable hell for me, but i do think that a drastic change in location (and landord!) will help quite a bit.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
- Mood:
apathetic
A note from agent Colleen Lindsay:
A good pal of mine, writer Aaron Allston, is bouncing back after having had a massive heart attack while on book tour; he had to have an emergency quadruple bypass and now he’s face with staggering medical bills. The Fandom Society of Texas has started a non-profit to collect donations and help Aaron out but we need to get the word out. I’ve written a blog post with all the details and links here.
Go ahead and link through, and if you have the ability, consider helping out.
What? Dick Cheney allegedly ordered the CIA to lie to Congress about some stuff it was doing? Who could have imagined? I mean, Dick Cheney always struck me as the open and communicative type, personally.
I have a general theory regarding Cheney, which is that a fundamental psychological trait of his is that he’s a coward, and as a coward he exhibits pathologies towards secrecy, the fetishization of violent power, self-justification in the face of facts and the overestimation of danger. This is not exactly an original theory, nor is it exclusive to me; nevertheless every time I look at Cheney I’m reminded that the politics of war and security should never be decided by men who are such bowel-shaken chickenshits. I don’t care if they’re Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, just don’t have them be the sort of terrified coward Cheney turned out to be. Terrified cowards choose poorly. It’s not too much to ask for better than that.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Harper's Island was excellent at setting up clues, but only ever for red herrings, I found. They did a splendid job making you think Abby's ex-boyfriend was in on the killing spree, but kind of a terrible job at leaving any clues as to the second killer's true identity. Which kind of came out of nowhere, in my opinion. We knew John Wakefield had a child because of his journal, a child who literally could have been anyone except the black guy, but they didn't leave us a trail of crumbs to follow to the truth. Instead, they sprang the revelation on us as expository dialogue, with nothing we previously witnessed to back it up.
Still, the scene where the true second killer is revealed was absolutely brutal. And that was Harper's Island's true strength. In 13-hour long form, it took the time to let you really get to know the characters, something your average 90-minute slasher movie tends not to, so when characters you've grown to like get offed, you feel it in a way you don't when Freddy rakes some cardboard character with his glove and spouts a kooky one-liner. Also, though Harper's was cheesy as hell (but such delicious cheese!), there was some writing talent behind it. The dialogue was a lot better here than in your average slasher, especially in the later episodes -- again, this is probably because they had time to develop the characters instead of just giving them quick defining characteristics before turning them into puddles of goo.
Anyway, Harper's Island is over, and as an experiment in using a finite thirteen episodes to tell an entire story on American television, I think it was a success. It didn't get much viewership, but I liked it quite a bit and would love to see more horror and mystery miniseries make their way to the
Still, kudos to CBS for giving it a shot, and for showing all the episodes (in order!) even after announcing its cancellation so all five of us who were watching could see it through to its conclusion.
Girl #1: Do you think you'll go on another date with him?
Girl #2: Yeah, I'm like addicted to hobbits!
--W 20th St & 6th Ave
Whether you want to keep your kids eyes away from inappropriate content or your employees from wasting time online, you'll find a variety of great tools available for filtering internet access in today's Hive Five.
Photo by Zach Klein.
Last week we asked you to share your favorite method of filtering internet content. While we originally intended to approach the topic from a software angle, it quickly became apparent that software didn't cut it for most people and that the majority of you are using either a combination of desktop software and a proxy server/firewall or just the latter by itself. The following solutions range, in difficultly of installation, from as simple as requiring five minutes to install to as complex as setting up a physical computer as a Linux-based content filter.
DansGuardian (Cross Platform, Free)
One way to measure whether or not Dansguardian is the right filtering tool for you is your willingness to install and tinker with an operating system like Linux. If OpenDNS (below) is the Mac-like "It just works!" one click solution, DansGuardian falls into a much more Linux-like "I can change every setting and experience real, ultimate power!" category. Dansguardian runs on Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Mac OS X, HP-UX, and Solaris. DansGuardian is extremely configurable and allows you to do all sorts of things, like block all images, filter ads out across your entire home network, block files from being downloaded by extension type, and control the effects of the filters, whitelists, and more based on which computer on your network is doing the accessing. You can deploy different filters for different computers based on domain, user, and source IP so your high school student doesn't get the same ultra-filtered content your elementary student does. DansGuardian needs to be paired with a proxy as it doesn't serve the web pages itself but only acts a filter—many users use Squid, also mentioned in the entry for SquidGuard.
K9 (Windows/Mac, Free)
Many of us have had experiences with K9's internet filtering, if for no other reason than it's used in thousands of schools across the country. One of K9's strong points is the division of filtered content into 60+ categories which allows you to easily block and unblock large chunks of their blacklist without having to get your hands too dirty. K9 is a desktop solution; you install the software and it checks all the internet requests you make against the filters you have specified. In an effort to overcome the limitations of working from a static database, K9 introduced Dynamic Real-Time Rating to actively access the content of websites and ban them if they fall into the filter categories you've selected.
OpenDNS (Cross Platform, Free)
OpenDNS is a perfect solution for people who either lack the time or expertise to set up and administer a full-out content-filtering server. OpenDNS replaces your current DNS server and allows you to filter every connection coming out of your house if you change the DNS settings at the router level. No matter if someone is on your main desktop or connecting into your wireless with laptop, everything will be filtered by OpenDNS. You can set custom filters to white list and black list specific sites and customize the range of filters they provide for you. If you're considering using OpenDNS as your household filter, check out our previous article on the topic.
SquidGuard/Squid (Linux, Free)
SquidGuard is similar to Dansguard in that it is a stand alone filtering tool you connect into with a proxy, in this case the popular Squid proxy. Also like Dansguard, you have a high degree of flexibility—dream up a combination of filtering parameters and there's a good chance you can make it happen with SquidGuard. No Hello Kitty between the hours of 9AM and 10PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays? Not a problem with the highly customizable SquidGuard. SquidGuard is natively a UNIX-environment only tool, and you can install it onto Linux, FreeBSD, and so forth.
Hosts File (Cross Platform, Free)
Many of you like to get your hands dirty—as evidenced by the popularity of Dansguard and Squidguard—and tinkering with the hosts file is a great way to do that while setting up a filter in the process. The hosts file is essentially a mini-directory on your computer of IP addresses and what they should be resolved to. If you go into your hosts file, for instance, and make an entry for 127.0.0.1 pointing at www.google.com, every time someone goes to visit google on that computer the web browser will direct them right back to the machine they are sitting at. You can manually edit your hosts file, but many of you use applications like Hostsman to make editing and configuring easier. Editing your hosts file is easy, but its effectiveness is largely limited to how strong the blacklist you've downloaded or created is. If your blacklist doesn't include a site or a string that catches part of the site's name, it will fail to block it at all.
Now that you've had a chance to look over the—rather varied—list of tools for filtering your internet connection, it's time to cast your vote for which tool you think is best:
Which Content Filtering Tool is Best?(trends)
If you've got your own tips, tricks, or even unmentioned tools for filtering internet access, we'd love to hear them in the comments.
It's pretty easy to get rid of useless clutter, like yard sale purchases you probably should have left in the yard you found them in. What about your collections, the stuff that might have value? Declutter them with honest evaluation.
Once bitten by the decluttering bug, most people have little trouble getting rid of the crap they have piled up on or in their office desk, or the magazines they didn't get around to reading. When it comes to digging into personal collections or memorabilia, however, people can be quite stubborn.
In the following video Marc Sotkin, of the Baby Boomer-centric blog Boomer Alley, urges us to take a good hard look at our collections of things and decide if it's worth having them around:
They lost me before the action even started, with the prologue in the form of an advertisement for a company that has discovered and now solely controls a form of cheap energy involving cold fusion. But the only thing you can use for this fusion is 'He3," a molecule found only on -- get this -- the dark side of the moon. Because of course the sub-lunar composition is different on the farside than the Earth side. Then, the evil corporation (of course) that controls this resource sets us a harvesting operation for He3, manned by ONLY one person. That person, it turns out, is actually a series of clones, with a new one thawed out to replace ones who wear out (which they do every three years or so). To make this work, the corporation (1)plants huge jammers on the moon so the clones can't find out through live feeds from Earth what they are or what the situation is, (2) a helpful robot who tells them what they are, despite having been programmed by the corporation, (3) "uploaded memories" in each new clone about his wife and baby on Earth, (4) periodic "messages" from the wife, (4) an "escape pod" to Earth, even though the corporation does not want the clone to escape, (5) a "secret room" full of unthawed clones that each clone does not know about, (6) a rationale that all this is "cheaper" than just hiring a team of employees with high enough hazard pay to do the job, (7)...No, I can't go on, it's just too stupid.
And scientifically offensive, as well. The movie ends with Earth getting ready to "hunt the rogue clone" who has escaped. As if a clone were anything more -- or less -- than an example of twinning that happens to occur decades later instead of hours after the first twin is born. Not a monster, not an inhuman thing, not a telepath... a delayed twin.
I AM going to stop seeing SF movies. It's too disheartening.
From 1990 or so, the Scottish band Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie, with their not-precisely-a-hit “Blacker Than Black”:
I always enjoyed this tune, mostly because any song that starts “Death is a pony that’s waiting for me/His name is Luigi, he’s tied to a black tree” has got to be performed by the truly commited.
Incidentally, some of the more visually astute among you might register the presence of Shirley Manson, better known as the singer of Garbage. She was so young in those days, as were we all. Younger, anyway.
Séraphine (2008) is these things:
It is drawn from the true story of the French artist Séraphine de Senlis, a poor housekeeper who started painting brilliant and strange canvases at age 41 in 1905. As World War I begins creaking into Europe, she meets Wilhelm Uhde, a German art critic and collector who was one of the first to notice Pablo Picasso,when he becomes a tenant at her employer's home.
It comes to its U.S. showings after earning enormous acclaim in France, winning seven awards at the 2009 Césars, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actress for the extraordinary Yolande Moreau.
It is a strange and slippery movie, a movie with shots of brilliance, a movie that embraces silences as a storytelling device; a movie that is attentive to film's parallels to painting, both being visual mediums; a movie that mirrors the perception of its protagonist by being brutally observant while detached from its time and place of two world wars and an economic crash.
It is a film with playful humor, dark edges, and startling juxtapositions. Class antagonism is the least of it.
It is a film that re-awakened the art history buff in me that thrills in this extraordinary time of modern art and changing perceptions about color and form, about the artist as "genius" and about the role (and assumptions) of the viewer.
It is a film that brings to bear the full gothic weight of Catholic symbolism--from the blood Séraphine uses in her paintings (stolen from the pots of organ meats in a kitchen that she works in) to the wild hymns that Séraphine howls as she paints late in the deep night. The hybridization of the material and spiritual that is embedded in Catholicism--and in art--is not lost on the filmmakers. In a way, this film is about communion.
While one might grow weary of the artist biopic genre, Séraphine stands out with a story that is almost entirely unknown and told uncommonly well.
I saw Séraphine at the Detroit Film Theatre, where its playing later today and next weekend. It seems to be showing at arthouse theaters across the nation.
Not partial to clowns, but the lighting on this painting was too good to pass up the shot!
( Two more )
Soon, the Gentleman's younger sister is taking my pictures at a nice park!
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Lots more to say, and I'll be saying it here, but this morning I've been noodling with the idea of all the things I'm afraid of. Many of these are no rational, but rationality has never been a prerequisite for existential dread. Most of them are not formless. My fears have very definite form, thank you. (Wonder Twins power activate: in the form of a tumor!) But I find it useful to drag the fears out into the light, turn them over a few times and think about them. That seems to disarm some of their power, and makes me feel better.
So, things I am afraid of:
- Dying soon
- Dying slow
- Dying fast
- Not seeing
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
the_child graduate from high school (or even 8th grade) - Chemo head
- Playing whack-a-mole with this shit til it kills me
- Losing myself in a fog of illness and never coming back
- Losing my ability to write
- Losing my desire to write
- The look in my parents' eyes
- My daughter's tears
- That I'll be so sick I won't be attractive to calendula_witch any more
- That I'll spend the rest of my life smelling sick
- That I'll get too thin on chemo
- That I'll grow too big on chemo
- That I won't be able to work and my life will collapse financially
It goes on from there. You get the idea. Hamsters chase one another through my head with alarming alacrity. Irrational or not, they're real. As chemo grows closer, I dread it more and more. The next CT scan will tell us whether I have tumors on my lungs. I dread that. Every piece of bad news is a strike against my mortality. My life. Myself.
Still, I carry on. Because there are no other choices except to spit at it and fight. I am so tired of being afraid.
| Originally published at jlake.com. |
Don’t mind me, the baby’s in my litter tray. She thinks it’s a sandpit, bless her…
babeh iz even drinkin awt of mah water bowl.
Picture by: dunno source. Caption by: chriswiththebat via Advanced Lol Builder
Greenpeace guy: Hey! Do you care about the environment?
Angry student: No.
Greenpeace guy: How about polar bears?
Angry student: No.
Greenpeace guy: Well, why not?
Angry student: They're not tasty.
--Outside Columbia University
Yep, homeward bound again. I'm in O'Hare and heading to the gate soon. Chicago was a great trip. Of course, the Introvert Fog is settling back on me now that I'm done with the Big Push.
I had a wonderful time. I discovered that the Chicago truly is the center of the known universe when it comes to deep dish pizza. Gino's East was utterly worth the wait. I also had the best ribeye ever and some fabulous company and conversation out to dinner with the Tor Crew. Thanks again, Tor. You folks are amazing to work with and I'm grateful for you all.
Another highpoint was that I got a lot of good hangout time with one of my dearest friends, the lovely and true
princessalethea. She took charge of a whirwind floor tour, introducing me to several people she's met during her years in the industry. We rarely get much time together because we're always at conventions surrounded by mobs of friends. This was busy but relaxed enough that we got to catch up and spend lots of time...and even managed to fit in a spontaneous serenade on a dare in the midst of it all. I also got to hang with PIerce Waters a bit, another great friend.The panel itself went great. I was really impressed with my colleagues. Robert Charles Wilson went first, talking a bit about the subject at hand and his new book (which I can't wait to read) Julian Comstock. I went second, followed by Margaret Weis who talked about how the words we right are not an escape from reality as much as a way of processing it and presenting it. John Brown was the only one newer than me in that group (his first book which I enjoyed greatly and blurbed is out on Oct 13, the same day as CANTICLE) and he gave a brilliant talk on SF/F as the gateway drug for literacy. It was delivered perfectly and he owned the room. Last, Eric Flint was up to talk about the differences between the literary world and SF/F and the place of speculative fiction as an anchor of literature throughout the history of storytelling.
Afterwards, we signed books for the folks that came out. I think we had about 300 or 400 people but I"m hoping to hear a final number on it.
Several folks asked after if my speech would be available anywhere. I told them I'd post it here. So if you're interested, it's below the cut. I took out some of the introductory remarks.
Again, big thank you to everyone who made this happen both at Tor and on the committee that organized the event. You folks are wonderful. And mighty thanks also to all of you who came out to listen and who waited in line for your books to be signed. I hope you all enjoy your time in the Named Lands and come back in October to visit again when CANTICLE hits the streets.
Now, I get on a plane and write. I didn't get through 26 and yesterday proved too busy to find words. So ideally, I'll wrap it today and get on to 27 tomorrow. Nearly there! Then it will on to Book 4.
And Jen tells me the nursery turned out beautifully. So big thanks to all of you who came out while I was gone and made that happen for us. Our daughters thank you, too, in little morse code messages tapped out on Jen's ribs.
( Reaching for Heaven.... )
Paulette Goddard reading.
Last Thursday, I spotted the word "Detroit" in the home section of THE NEW YORK TIMES. Whereas other articles on the pages were about pieces of furniture and similar items, abandoned homes in Detroit was its subject.Notice the layers of abandonment in this selection.
Kevin Bauman has been photographing abandoned houses in Detroit for some time. He was hopeful that some of these houses would be saved when he began. The photos are for sale but as NYT suggested, probably few Detroiters will buy one. We just have to look out the window.
What's truly amazing is how lovely many of these buildings must have once been. It's not just tenements falling down here.
Here's his site--take a look. Something to keep in mind is that these are all in the city Detroit, despite often seeming rural due to demolished neighboring houses.
As Mr. Bauman says on his website: "All images, whether the crumbling facade of a century old mansion, or a client's industrial drill, are linked together by my devotion to photography, and each recieves the same attention to detail."
Dr Singh was speaking on his latest book, the one on alternative medicine he's being sued for by the British Chiropractic Association. There was a great turnout - the audience filled the Bonython Hall - but I got a good seat in the second row by arriving prudently early.
It was interesting to watch him as a speaker, actually. He worked with powerpoint slides and some music. He has the introductory joke and the second good joke at the halfway mark: I noted that neither came from his alternative medicine book. There was the personal anecdote near the start about how he came to be involved in writing the book (he followed up a startling scene in a BBC2 documentary of a woman having open heart surgery with acupuncture and without general anaesthetic). He ended up cutting his talk short though, so either he'd mistimed or we were watching the first portion of a longer talk. He left plenty of time for questions, some of which came from alternative medicine practitioners.
I hadn't seen him enough on telly to expect his hair.
It was a bit odd being back in the Bonython Hall. I've had three graduations there and the last time I visited it was for the wedding of the woman who was my best friend in my Australian high school. She read aloud from The Velveteen Rabbit.
I didn't go expecting to learn very much, as I have a perverse sort of interest in pseudoscience and related fields, but it was worth attending.
His book had sold out by the time I made it through the scrum in the book tent.
Now, put down those Fizzing Wizzbies, and let's admire the works of some of the finest Muggle bakers around!
You guys asked for more 2D cakes, so check out this awesome fondant-free example:
We're pretty sure that's either a chocolate or butter cream transfer on the top - cool, huh? I found it on Decolicious!'s Flickr stream.Next is Marge's amazing Sorting Hat:
For those of you who are not (yet) die-hard Potter fans, the sorting hat is a magical talking hat. Who sometimes sings. Or produces swords. Or bursts into flames. (Just read the books, Ok?)This next one is reeeeally exciting [pushing up glasses]:
It's a book cake, yes. But not just ANY book cake; a book cake with the very last line from the series on it:
"All was well." [tearing up] This is so beautiful. Sadly, I've looked and looked but I don't know who made it. If someone does, please let me know.And finally, here's the Hogwarts cake Duff and his team from Charm City Cakes made:
I think this was for the last movie's premier.Here's a closeup:
I know what you're thinking, and yes, there actually are more great Harry Potter cakes out there. You'll just have to tune in next Sunday to see the rest of them. (And if you have one to nominate, you can send it to us at Sunday Sweets [at] Cake Wrecks [dot] com.)
And finally, I know there are still some folks out there who don't like Harry Potter, for any of a number of reasons. I doubt I'll be able to change your mind if that's the case, but I do want to share what I think is the best end result of JK Rowling's work:
Little kids reading 800 page books - now THAT is Sunday Sweets worthy.
Description: Teal'C returns to Chulak to stop the Goa'uld from enslaving his son Rya'C. The trouble is Rya'C needs a larva to survive- and the only one available is Teal'C's.
A Teal'c centered episode where we learn a bit more about his family and life on Chulak. Not bad, but not great either. The story has some cliched bits in it and once again shows that the forces of Apophis are staggeringly incompetent.
calendula_witch and me — Specifically, she talks about the podcast version, read by Sean Farrell and Mur Lafferty.The soda-pop map — I used to say "Coke" generically, these days I say "soda." Where do you fall on this continuum? (Thanks to
garyomaha.)Bridge to Nowhere: a Map of Golden Gate Jumpers — Another odd one from Strange Maps.
Solar for Dark Climates — I love the headline alone, but the article is interesting as well, about hybrid solar systems for northern latitudes. Mmm, Stirling engines.
Evidence based revenge — Ben Goldacre on revenge and bitterness. Money shot: Put very simply, if we desire it, does revenge work? People certainly believe in it, from modern thrillers such as Hamlet and Moby Dick, to classics like Kill Bill and Death Wish I-V.
Get Fuzzy on American political parties — Hahahahahahahahahaha.
?otD: Soda or pop?
7/12/2009
Body movement: 30 minutes on stationary bike, 10 minutes of meditation and stretching
This morning's weigh-in: 218.2
Currently reading: Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold
| Originally published at jlake.com. |
You gotta love emails like these floating around the IntarWebs. Words and Images sent in by Monica H., from an email forwarded to her:
“These little bunnies, about 6 days old, were attacked by a dog and orphaned. Two out of the litter of five did not survive, and these three were not doing very well.”
“Noah is a non-releasable, one-legged homing pigeon/rock dove that is in the rehab center. Noah kept going over to the bunny cage and looking in—even sleeping in front of the door to the cage.”
”Then suddenly, there were only two bunnies in the cage. To everyone’s surprise there was the tiny bunny under Noah’s wing sound asleep! That little bunny rabbit had crawled through the cage, preferring a featherbed!”
“Now, they are all together and the bunnies are doing GREAT. When the bunnies scoot underneath Noah’s feathers, he carefully extends his wings out to surround them and then they snuggle. When one of them moves and they start sticking out here and there, he gently pushes them back under him with his beak! It is a beautiful and amazing thing to see.”
Pretty snorgleriffic, Monica H.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: Birds, Bunnies, Interspecies Snorgling
![[info]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
txtriffidranch, you'll want to know about this.DARPA plans to end swine flu using Triffid drugs; Possible minor zombification side effect
You can't make this stuff up.
Oh, no, wait...
Profile
- deborahb
- Deborah Biancotti
- deborahbiancotti.net
