Monday, May 30, 2011

Thank you, boing boing.

It is no secret to friends, family and colleagues that I am a big fan of Boing Boing - the everything blog created by science fiction author Cory Doctorow. If you haven't read "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" then you should. As a long time fan of both Disney and science fiction this book scratches so many itches.

At least once a day I spam my friends, family and colleagues some article or another sourced from the team at Boingboing ranging in topic from fringe to pertinent science, old videos of house wives undergoing experiments with LSD, book and music recommendations, and esoteric internet rumblings. I enjoy this blog immensely.

It should come as no surprise then that this site has led me to another great discovery. Claire L. Evans. She is the one on the left.

She is the singer from a band called Yacht. They are danceable, infectious, and smart. Megan, Robin, Lauren and I saw them last spring at a street fair and it was a danceable, infectious, and smart performance. And if I remember correctly, Claire sang into an audience member's cell phone.


Calire L. Evans posts reviews of science fiction books and articles on science news. My blog roll keeps getting fatter.

Scienceblogs

SpaceCanon


Happy Memorial Day! Thank you troops of the past, present and future. This is how my dog plans on celebrating.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

New New Orleans

I am reading three books set in New Orleans.




Two of these books are for a class and one is for pure pleasure. Take a guess at which one? I'll give you a hint - there are vampires.

I started to read Infinite Jest, but realized that I was also reading Faulkner, and the combined effect of both authors was doing strange, long-winded things to my writing. I scaled it back with some Anne Rice. I recently friended her on Facebook and it was probably one of my better Facebook decisions. I really enjoy her status updates about missing New Orleans and the state of the Catholic Church. I feel like I have a lot in common with her views. And she has been pulling wacky publicity stunts long before Lady Gaga's egg. Behold:


Time to get some work done and hopefully summon up the will and strength to workout. Still sick feeling. It is still cold outside. And I still can't find a reasonably priced, aesthetically pleasing bike for short ladies under five feet. Any suggestions?

Rainbow


Taken from here.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Ping

My Spring semester went in a pretty steady haze interrupted by trips to D.C. with my twin, Puerto Rico with Evan, and visits from my siblings to make our yearly pilgrimage to the comic book convention. And Evan's family visited. Oh! And my brother Mike and his rad girlfriend got engaged!




Plus there was some writing peppered in there somewhere. I settled on which of my novels-in-progress I would like to commit to for my thesis material and had a trio of incredible teachers guiding my way.

Right now I am in my final class and I am sick with something that could very well be some strange ailment only Victorians would catch according to my doctor. There is a ping sound to my cough that has long irritated and pained my family ever since by body learned to cough. My sister calls it the soul-detector, which incidentally sounds like the latest dance craze, or at least should be. Sadly, the cough was present for my entire visit to New Orleans prompting my family to shudder in pain often. Many a crawfish was destroyed in my visit, bicycles were ridden, sno-balls were eaten, the Mississippi rose, and Megan and I walked through City Park often. We also went to the Metairie Cemetery on my last day and saw some pretty incredible crypts.


In spite of my ailment, I went out last night to eat Mexican food with a close friend (a lawyer poetess) I haven't seen in well over a year, and then drag her Jamaican butt to meet other friends I haven't seen in a while, with Evan in tow, to dance at a Smith's themed night at a local bar. It was a stupid move on my part, but it was loads of fun, and makes me long for the day where I can go and not cough my brains out into a wall.

Fortunately, dancing to Morrissey does not require too much movement, just awkward gyrations, which fortunately I am really good at. I will herein call my dancing style the Soul Detector. I hope my dancing and coughing will not bring about some horrible shoegazing, Victorian plague.

http://youtu.be/Igg_2ZqyMzQ

Also - Sookie is still an ace traveler.