Well, now that I’ve got my Technorati troubles sorted out, I thought I’d check that “How Much is My Blog Worth?” thing again (when I checked previously, it was worth absolutely nothing). But look, now it has value!
My blog is worth $54,195.84.
How much is your blog worth?
Pre-KGB, I went into the city early to hang out with David Barr Kirtley. I took the NJ Transit train from Metropark to NY Penn Station for the first time. It’s a nice ride; a much better option for commuting into the city from home. I think discovering it as an option will make me much more likely to go into Manhattan on a day off. For instance, there’s a big event on Sunday for Jeff VanderMeer’s Shriek movie (a short film based on his new novel, Shriek). There’s all kinds of other stuff going on too: some readings by other writers, and there’s even “godzilla burlesque.” Not sure what that is exactly; I understand the terms separately, but I don’t grok gozilla being used as a modifier for burlesque. I’m kind of curious to find out though.
But anyway–like I said, I went in and spent the day hanging out with Dave. We went to see A Scanner Darkly. It was pretty good, but I didn’t really understand it. It’s very much a drug movie and not much of an SF film, but it was entertaining (if overly puzzling), and the animation was awesome, even if I didn’t really see the point of it (they could have just as easily just filmed the movie).
After the movie, we headed down to Central Park to play some Frisbee. If you read my Readercon report, then you may recall that we played Frisbee then too (and also, perhaps, you might remember that I suck at Frisbee). I was much improved from our Readercon toss, however. I still had some really crap throws, but overall, I was much more competent.
Once exhausted from Frisbee, we started heading toward KGB after a brief rest on some benches. During our rest, I called back Carol Pinchefsky, who had called during our game. She skipped KGB in favor of attending a party for people of a similar haplotype or something. She said she got her father a genetic screening for his birthday, to help identify their family’s roots or something, and as a result some group contacted them to invite them to this haplotype party. Is that strange, or what? We both agreed that it might be interesting, and would surely be the seed of an article of some kind. I mean, have you ever heard of a haplotype party?
So eventually, we get to KGB, after a brief stop off at Chickpea, which is some kind of Israeli restaurant, so Dave could grab something to tide him over til the after-KGB dinner. This may have been a mistake, as he got ill later and had to bail on dinner, citing a pressing urge to vomit. I guess that’s what he gets for being an adventurous eater. I’d never even heard of the thing he ordered.
But anyway, we showed up pretty early, around 6PM, and the doors to KGB don’t open til 6:30. But Jim Freund and his wife Barbara were already there sitting out front on the steps, so we chatted with them for a while. Shortly after our arrival, Dave’s friend Rob Bland showed up with his friend Andrew in tow. Shortly after that, Devin Poore showed up. Once we got inside, we were able to secure good seats since we were so early. One of the readers, Elizabeth Bear, got there
bright and early, so I got a chance to chat with her for a bit and we both lamented how we never got to say hello at Readercon. Bear had a crew in tow–two friends who came a long way to hear her read (one from Ohio: Jamie Voss, and one all the way from Texas: Amanda Downum). The other reader was William Shunn.
Much of the regular crew was present, though Andrea Kail was off in Maine. Doug Cohen was there, as was Chris Cevasco, still glowing from Clarion. At dinner, my crew usually sits at what we call “the kid’s table,” because it’s usually just us regulars, and none of the readers or other occasional visitors tend to join us. However, this time, Elizabeth Bear sat at our table, mainly because she’s good friends with E, who is part of the crew. At dinner, E-Bear (as Elizabeth Bear is known to her e-friends) told us about the research she did about penile tatooing. Never really thought of getting tattoo there. Seems kind of painful, no? I guess I’ll be reading all about it, as she said there’s penile tatooing in the new story she’s sending to F&SF.
We all usually linger after dinner, but E wanted to hit the road and asked if anyone wanted to share a cab to Penn Station. Since Doug and I were both headed there, we hopped in a cab with her and headed out a bit early. Which was fine with me since I had to work the next day, and I wasn’t sure what the return commute home would be like on the train. It was also handy to have them with me to make sure I got to the right place, because I had no idea how I’d find my train. As it happened, we were discussing it, and a gentleman waiting for the train told me what I needed to know. Turns out it’s pretty easy to figure out (much easier to figure out than which train is which at Metropark).
I really enjoyed taking the train–I got a lot of reading done both to and from, so that’s good. I’m in the middle of reading Paragaea by Chris Roberson, which I’m really digging, so it was cool to do a bunch of reading during the commute.
Got home around midnight, which is good for a KGB night. It’s good that it wasn’t too late, because I had to drag some “big garbage” down to the curb for pickup the next morning. See, you can’t just put out big garbage whenever you want; you have to make an appointment. So if you’re throwing away a bed or something, you have to call first. And it takes like a month to get your appointment. I guess a lot of people in Perth Amboy throw away a lot of big garbage. What I had to throw away was an old bed, which I had to dispose of to make room for my fancy new Tempur-Pedic bed. Shortly after dragging the bed to the curb, I collapsed into said fancy new bed, and thus was well-rested for a full day of slushing on Thursday.
If you’re one of those people who goes and looks at my Flickr photos, then you might remember when I posted this scan of my grandparents’ wedding photo. Well, as I doing some excavating recently, I came across another very cool photograph, this one of their (I assume) first dance. I thought it was cool, so here it is.
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about Alan Dean Foster’s latest novel, The Candle of Distant Earth, which concludes his The Taken trilogy.
Speaking of my review of Infoquake, I wanted to take a brief moment give some kudos to the Pyr design and typesetting team. A friend who works in the production department of a major publisher told me that if the typesetting is noticeable, then the typesetter has failed. But I think that typesetting–or at least really good typesetting–can really make a reader take notice, at least enough to appreciate it, then forget about it and delve into the story. Many publishers these days are so eager to keep books short (admittedly, due to market forces beyond their control) that they’ll eliminate so much white space from the page that it renders the text all but unreadable. Infoquake‘s (and all Pyr titles’) typesetting on the other hand, is widely-spaced and a pleasure to read. As someone who is both a lover of books as entertainment, and as a lover of books as physical objects, it just has to be said that Pyr puts together some of the finest-looking books on the planet–both on the inside with their lovely typesetting and on the outside with their beautiful covers. Coincidentally, they’ve also been publishing some of the best books period, so it’s a mighty fine combination.
The latest installment of my book review column, STRONG MEDICINE: Books That Cures What Ails You, has just been published at Intergalactic Medicine Show.
In this column, I review three first novels: Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora; Nick DiChario’s A Small and Remarkable Life; and David Louis Edelman’s Infoquake.
[Excerpt:] Imagine you could do to your body what you can do to a browser like Firefox–you can install plug-ins to make it do a variety of tasks that you (but not everyone) would find useful, and if there’s something about the standard operating procedures that irritates you, you can just go in and tweak the code to make the offending annoyance stop. Tired? Don’t down caffeine; just run a program to wake you up. Need to tell something private to your friend while in a room full of people? Don’t leave the room; just use the ConfidentialWhisper program, which is essentially technological telepathy.
Go read the review and then come back and tell me how awesome it is.
On Friday, I met up with friends David Barr Kirtley and Amy Tibbetts in Manhattan for a little museum action. We met up outside Penn Station, then trekked over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art via subway. In the subway, we had a little adventure, as Dave and I tried to figure out our subway maps; a moment of indecision kept us from boarding the train we should have taken immediately (the C train), so we needlessly changed trains a few times, but in the end, we arrived where we’d originally intended. The stop left us off near the entrance of Central Park, and the museum is on the other side of the park, so we took a leisurely stroll through the park to get there.
The museum was pretty awesome. I didn’t realize all of what was at the Met, or else I might have gone there earlier. For some reason, I thought it was just paintings. In fact, there’s so much other than paintings, we didn’t even get around to really seeing any. Well, except for when Dave speed-walked us through a wing of paintings on our way to another exhibit, so we didn’t really get a chance to stop and look at them. Though Dave seemed intent on doing a lot of speed-walking; for a smart guy, he displayed surprisingly little tolerance for a museum pace which would actually, you know, allow you to appreciate the artifacts and perhaps learn something. I suppose we’re just lucky that no one has listened to his idea of making a museum in which you can rollerblade or jog through it. Well, that might be kind of cool, actually; it’s got to be more interesting than rollerblading or jogging around the block.
One instance of our speed-walking was right at the very start as we went through the Egyptian exhibit, though we at least had a good reason: we were looking for the bathrooms. However, our pace did not deter me from snapping some pictures along the way (click on the above picture to see the complete photoset). You’re not allowed to use a flash in the museum, because the light can damage the artifacts apparently, but I got some great pictures anyway. Sadly, I didn’t check my camera’s batteries, and I quickly ran out of power, and the stupid gift shop doesn’t sell batteries (no doubt because they want you to buy their crappy disposable cameras). Later, I was thinking that I should have asked other museum-goers with cameras if they had any batteries to spare, but I didn’t, so these few pics are all the evidence I have of my trip.
What I really would have liked to photograph was some of the cool armor and weapons we got to see. (And if I was thinking, I would have tried to photograph the informational plaques beside each of the objects I took pictures of.) Oh, well; next time. Truth be told, there’s so much to see at the Met that you can’t see it all in one day anyway, so it’s just another excuse to go back.
After the museum, we headed out to dinner with Andrea Kail (who just made her first fiction sale, to Fantasy Magazine), Dave’s Odyssey classmate Rob Bland, and Carol Pinchefsky and her husband, Peter.
Things learned on Friday: (1a) tattoos located on the lower back are known as “tramp stamps”; (1b) when a woman’s g-string is visible above the top of her pants, that is called a “whale tail”; (2) the way to impress Hollywood moguls is to drop by their studios with your optionable stories in hand, making a grand entrance on top of a papier mache dragon; (3) museum gift shops are evil.
First: yes, I’m still going.
Why am I selling my membership then? Because I just scored a press pass via SCIFI.com.
I bought my membership a while ago, for, I think $150. So I’d be happy to sell it for that amount, just to get my money back. Seems like a good deal since memberships are now $200. If you’re interested, please email me privately at johnjosephadams@gmailNOSPAM.com rather than responding in the comments (be sure to delete the NOSPAM part).
My preferred method of payment would be paypal. Hugo voting rights have already been used up (obviously, since the deadline has passed), but whatever else it entitles you to is probably still active (site selection, and I don’t know what else).
UPDATE: Membership sold!
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about Julie Phillips’s new biography of James Tiptree, Jr.
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about the new Kevin J. Anderson/Brian Herbert Dune novel, Hunters of Dune, which was based upon Frank Herbert’s notes for “Dune 7.”
