Yup, another rejection. This one wasn’t so nice, but at least the comments for it were helpful. Yeah, guess I should send this one off again. Anywho! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
Alright, so the poll went mostly okay. I learned a lesson: don’t put too many titles in the same poll. So, I won’t do that for the next one. I also found out that some folks (such as those that us IE) can’t see the polls. I apologize for this, folks. I will try to use another polling system to see if it works better until Blogger updates their polling system. The winner, by one vote, is Sly Mongoose by Tobias S. Buckell. I’m happy about that choice (although I’d likely say that for any choice you all made), because I love Buckell’s work and have been looking forward to this book for a while. So after I finish the book I’m on, I’m going to that book. Now, to a new poll to choose the next book I read after Sly Mongoose. I used a new poll program for the poll. If you cannot see the poll, please leave a comment here. Edit: The direct link to the poll is here. Thanks and good luck voting. (Edit: Sorry, for some reason this didn’t get posting, but it is now.)(Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
Worldly advice from someone very aware of reality: (6) Understand the negative aspects of the internet and manage your behavior accordingly. Negative aspects of the internet and our electronic lives include: being trained in Pavlovian fashion to check our email every five seconds, having our Instant Messenger up 24-7, and writing on laptops where we can be interrupted at any moment. Some of these aspects of (post)modern life affect our attention span. Others turn perfectly viable tactics into an unsupportable and detrimental overall strategy. In all things, balance is required. As a writer, I feel the greatest dangers of the internet are (1) equating the constant appearance of new information and new correspondence with a requirement to immediately reply/be instantly available and (2) the constant, daily loss of uninterrupted time not only to write but to think about writing. Many writers and others who depend on the internet find themselves controlled by their involvement with the electronic world, without even realizing it. They still think they are in charge, but they are not: their tactics have become their strategy. If this addiction were an addiction to, for example, alcohol, the results would be obvious and the reaction of friends and society corrective. But when it comes to the internet, we’re nearly all addicted, and we receive so much instant gratification without understanding or monitoring the attendant dangers that we often do not even realize what we may have lost. Thank you for making me painfully aware of my own addictions (so says the man who is writing this at 1:28 AM to be posted at 9:30 AM on the same day). (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
Just found out from Locus and Ellen Datlow that SF writer and critich Thomas M. Disch committed suicide on the 4th. This is depressing. I’ve been meaning to buy one of his books that the Slugstore (i.e. the college bookstore) carries. He will be missed… (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
News from BoingBoing: all the stolen laptops have essentially been replaced. Enough money was earned thanks to the community. Good news indeed. That was darn fast too. Good work people. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
So the washer broke today. I figured it was going to happen eventually. The landlord, for whatever reason, has never replaced this thing and it was on the verge of breaking anyway. The washer itself works, but the door was wonky, needing to be kick hard to get it to shut. Then the other day it needed to be sledge hammered in to shut properly and now today, after giving it one good kick, the door came right off, the hinges broken. Will the landlord replace it? Not likely. Even if I told him he needs to. Somehow I think he has a responsibility to considering how many people rent here and also considering there isn’t a laundromat within 5 miles of here (which requires at least two transit rides to get to). Needless to say, I’m a little pissed off. I’m on my last pair of clean pants…and I have to do the laundry. I officially hate this house. Yes, hate. I don’t know how one person can be so disorganized. It’s mind boggling. So, if you have a room for rent, let me know. I may be moving pretty quick here, considering the conditions, what I’m paying for rent and utilities, and the company being kept here. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
