what did we do today, brain?

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:21:39 GMT

Your humble narrator...

• 10:53 is thankful that today is a half-day at school. #
• 20:31 is relieved that the first batch of Surreal Botany copies is now in the mail to the US, and should be available by the middle of next week. #

what did we do today, brain?

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:13:49 GMT

Your humble narrator...

• 09:32 only got 2 hours of sleep last night (if that), and thus feels a bit off. #

what did we do today, brain?

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:07:26 GMT

Your humble narrator...

• 09:38 is poking around the new Tor.com site. My handle there is jelundberg. #

face-a-thon

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:24:20 GMT

Warren Ellis is posting self-portraits of his readers all this week on his blog. And hey, some jerk with a copy of Surreal Botany is near the bottom left of today's entry.

"To join in this week, take a self-portrait and send it to warrenellis @ gmail.com."

dr. horrible's sing-along blog

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:31:06 GMT

Many people on my friends list have linked to the above, but I wanted to make sure I mentioned it as well, in case y'all haven't heard.

Joss Whedon, the creative genius behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and the upcoming Dollhouse, has released Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a three-part musical miniseries that is available to view free in streaming format this week only; afterward, it can be downloaded from iTunes, but at a cost of US$1.99 per episode.

Created during the writer's strike, Dr. Horrible is about an insecure mad scientist (Neil Patrick Harris) who is constantly being foiled by his nemesis, the smarmy Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion). Complicating things is the crush that Dr. Horrible (in his alter ego as Billy) has on laundromat-buddy Penny (Felicia Day), who is "saved" by Captain Hammer during the first episode and decides to date the do-gooder.

Full of Whedon's trademark humour, and subversion of character roles (with the "bad guy" as the more sympathethic, and the "good guy" being kind of a dick), the miniseries is pretty great so far (Act I is a bit slow, but stick with it); each episode is about 13 minutes long, and the first two acts have already been uploaded. Once the third act is posted on Saturday night, the streaming will only be available until Sunday at midnight, after which the episodes will disappear (although you'll still be able to download them).

If you enjoyed the Buffy episode "Once More, With Feeling" (as I did), you'll love Dr. Horrible to pieces. Be sure to check it out while it's still free.

listen, don't listen in

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:29:53 GMT

PEN American Center (which I recently joined as an associate member) has joined with the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and several other organizations to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the "FISA Amendments Act of 2008" that was just passed into law last week by the US Congress (and, to my disappointment, voted for by Barack Obama). In short, the FAA expands the Bush administration's powers to spy on the communications of ordinary American citizens by using dragnet surveillance; every time you make a phone call or write an email, it goes right into a government database, even if you are innocent of any wrongdoing. Private correspondence will no longer exist, and the government doesn't even need a warrant to spy on you.

This doesn't just affect civilians, but also journalists trying to report the truth of what the government is up to, and human rights activists who may be working to combat abuses in countries that the US may be allied with. Not to mention prose writers who happen to address social or political issues in their fiction; how much will they self-censor when the government is looking over their shoulders? This is, in addition to the ubiquity of CCTV cameras in major cities, one step closer to the constant monitoring of telescreens.

From Francine Prose, president of PEN, in a recent email to members:

This week, the ACLU is taking out a full-page ad in a major national newspaper expressing our disappointment over this abandonment of Constitutional principles. The ad will print the names of tens of thousands of Americans who believe in the Constitution and want Congress to hear us loud and clear: next time, stand up for our rights.