A Medley of Extemporanea

And No, I'm Not Marie of Romania, but thanks for asking
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Fiction links ease the coming heat

Jun23
by berry on June 23, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Posted In: Links, Uncategorized

That’s right, it’s gonna be hot today. Cool off with these fine short stories:

“Kaonashi” by Eliza W. Chan, where a guy’s attempt at a perfect life goes awry, creepily. Extra points if you recognize the title from somewhere else!

“Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard: Cultural assimilation digitized. It made me upset for one of the characters, but it ended on a hopeful note.

“The Man who Forgot Ray Bradbury” by Neil Gaiman. It’s by Neil Gaiman. Why haven’t you read it already?

“The Homecoming” by Mike Resnick. A man comes to grips with his son’s life.

“If at First” by Peter F. Hamilton: A police procedural that turns into something else halfway through.

BONUS EXTRA STORY! “Sequence” by Michael Haynes: A story where the SF sneaks up on you. And, Dan, it’s only 1000 words so you can’t give me a TL;DR on it…

Or, if you are more ambitious, here’s the list of books and authors mentioned in Among Others. Of course, read Among Others first. It won the Nebula, after all!

If you wonder about the briskness of my takes on each story, it’s because they’re from my tweets. I’m taking part in #storyeachnight, a self-explanatory hashtag if ever there was one. It’s fun, and it’s getting me to read more than the mammoths that I’ve plowed through lately. I have a great idea, why don’t you, fair reader, do likewise? It’s fast, it’s fun, and it gets you into a different headspace (WordPress doesn’t like the word headspace. It wants me two swap in meatspace instead. Heh.) every night. Here’s mine: @bojnberry

 

ED: WHAT? I didn’t hit submit, and this has sat in my drafts folder for the past five days? #facepalm. At least I’ve now read “Kaonishi” and “Immersion”, so I had something to say about them. And it was hot, see?

Hot!

 

 

?otd: What did you think of the Kevin Smith segments at the NHL awards?


6/4/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Turning a short story I wrote a couple of weeks ago into an outline for something longer)
Body movement: 40 min swim, plus yard work
Hours slept: 8.5 (fitful, including 2 hours awake in the middle of the night)
Weight: 109.2
Currently reading: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Currently listening: Deadline by Mira Grant

 

└ Tags: links, storyeachnight
2 Comments

UCV Medieval Festival in pictures (and vids!)

Jun13
by berry on June 13, 2012 at 3:47 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

I went to Upper Canada Village this weekend to have fun at their annual medieval festival. Mission Accomplished. Enjoy these highlights:

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Golden Eagle at the medieval hunting demonstration

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Sir Bernard, our fain protector

One run in the jousting list. Not as brutal as last year, when Sir Shanton unhorsed Sir Bernard twice.

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Scallagrims, on their way to kidnap the king's lady while avoiding the siege engines

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Archery assault!

Scallagrims and l’Ost du Quebec have at each other. Don’t worry, folks, those blades aren’t sharp.

 

 

└ Tags: medieval
 Comment 

Certain links evade random keyword searches

Jun04
by berry on June 4, 2012 at 6:18 pm
Posted In: Links, Uncategorized

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction — A compendium of all (most?) things science fiction

BestSfBooks — Provides a centralized spot to find the winners (and nominees!) of the 12 major sff prizes.

Writing Through a Rough Patch — From Michael Haynes’ blog, how he pushes himself through days where writing is hard.

Nookd — E-books bowing to their corporate masters.

For people who like music to be all up in their grill.

?otd: Have you ever been to Salt Lake City?


6/4/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (Travelling from Toronto, recovering from travelling from Toronto)
Body movement: 0 (but 2 hours of walking a day while in Toronto)
Hours slept: 7.5 (solid)
Weight: 109.7
Currently reading: Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan
Currently listening: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

└ Tags: links
 Comment 

Weekend Recap, in Pictures

Jun03
by berry on June 3, 2012 at 6:33 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

I went to Toronto this weekend. Mostly for this:

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Blue Jays vs. Red Sox

and this:

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Foot long with baked beans and back bacon

I also got treated to this:

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Streaker being tackled behind first base

We had awesome weather! Union station flooded! with raw sewage! Fun!

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CN Wha?

It got better the next day, and we walked around for a bit before the next game. I found these:

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Last gen 3rd jerseys selling for $140 (ok, fine, I found this Friday afternoon on the way in, but the narrative flow works better this way)

and these:

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Heatley jersey: $100 Kelly jersey: $120 Cheechoo jersey: $140(!!!)

And we visited Maple Leaf Gardens:

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Ah, nice iconic façade

which is now a Loblaws!

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Centre ice at Loblaws. They had black cans of Maple Leaf ham in the aisle. Coincidence?

We then went to “The World’s Biggest Bookstore” to pick up a Dan Wells book that I strangely couldn’t find in Ottawa:

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Stupid four-for-three sales!

Went to the next game:

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Almost full house, hence the not as awesome seats.

And went for supper at the Baton Rouge in the Eaton Centre. After supper went to do some shopping and chaos ensued. Long/Short: we all got out safely after a bit of a run, though we did get separated for a bit. Go cellular network for not crashing during all of this.

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Cop in the middle of the frame cocked a shotgun as he walked past me. Kind of freaky sound.

We retreated to the hotel and watched stuff unfold on the TV, where there was less chance of getting shot. We could also keep up with developments a bit through the window:

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Though not much was happening other than the roadblock

Hockey and bed and a breakfast buffet with one of these:

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Making my very own macchiato. And it tasted passably good!

Fun, terrifying times! And this now makes three trips in a row where Union Station shut down for some reason. I almost feel like they are doing it for me.

 

 

└ Tags: Toronto
1 Comment

Semi-regular link compendium, providing us new knowledge

May29
by berry on May 29, 2012 at 5:21 pm
Posted In: Links

2012 Hugo Voter Packet — If you haven’t heard, they’ve released the Hugo Packet. Become a member, read, and vote!

Please Learn to Write — Rands reaction to Mayor Bloomberg’s resolution to learn how to code.

Tintin in Innsmouth — Herge/HPL mashups. Yes.

Your Roommate Plays the Indigo Girls — An oldie, but a goodie.

?otd: Why is it warmer inside than out?


5/29/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hour (new short story)
Body movement: 30 minute walk, plus yard work
Hours slept: 5.0 solid
Weight: 110.1 (ack!)
Currently reading: Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan
Currently listening: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey


└ Tags: hugos, links
 Comment 
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[progpress title="pages" goal="10082" current="3876"] [progpress title="Lord of Chaos" goal="699" current="699"] [progpress title="The Fires of Heaven" goal="684" current="684"] [progpress title="The Shadow Rising" goal="681" current="681"] [progpress title="The Dragon Reborn" goal="578" current="578"] [progpress title="The Great Hunt" goal="577" current="577"] [progpress title="Eye of the World" goal="657" current="657"]

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