I showed Joe Inform 7. I couldn't tell him why I switched over from I6 to I7--I mean, I'm sure there are technical reasons to, I just don't know what they are. I switched for lemming reasons (i.e. everyone else was doing it). Embarrassing but true.

Also, apparently I7 syntax totally gives Joe the hives. Things like if-otherwise instead of if-else ("Why replace a shorter word with a longer word?" he asked), kinds instead of classes, and OMG he cringed when I showed him my truth states ("What's wrong with booleans?") and the natural-English-like syntax. Then I showed him "Cloak of Darkness" in TADS 3 and he was much happier. (I have nothing against TADS in any form, it's just Inform is what I learned and I'm fundamentally too lazy to switch if I can get done what I want done in the language I semi-know.)

I admit I floundered for a bit trying to remember where I had code snippets to show him because the AIF I'd written for a friend was NOT getting shown to him no matter what. "It's okay," he said, "I can extract out the syntax bits from the smut."

"You don't understand," I said. "This isn't for your protection, it's for mine!"

In unrelated news, I think the sgrieltsu story very probably does not work. It's too much gimmick and not enough substance, and the dénouement, even though I haven't written it yet, sucks. Back to the drawing board...

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jsmooth goes there on the latest fiddy/jayz/beanie siegel beef.

ok now yo know i could care less about rap beef (the marketing tool) but this had me falling the hell out, so i recommend watching.

Watching Jim Carrey movie. The things I do for love.

baking with cold freezer action.

...I played along with a bunch of other manga bloggers and contributed a Great Manga Gift Guide post over on my rarely-used professional blog. (It's also been cross-posted to Dreamwidth.) Everyone who participated took the idea and ran in different directions with it; for mine, I decided to only list series that're already complete in English. That makes it a bit impractical for actual gift suggestions, since I tend to like long series, but so it goes.

Current Mood: okay

Current Music: Anna Tsuchiya - Rose (NANA OP, live)

vague noodling about lj and my nerves, but not enough to post about. realized that I havent done any serious music listening lately, so threw chung king's we travel fast and some bjork in the player.

actually, i do have a thought to post about.

when did boundaries in online interactions suddenly become unhip?

Current Mood: contemplative

Current Music: bjork, joga

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If any of you fine people would like an invitation to Google Wave, let me know.

spiced pumpkin bread in progress done, this time with molasses and ginger added.

Current Mood: satisfied

Current Music: massive attack - teardrop

Why Breaking Dawn Must Be Made Into A Movie. I laughed so hard I hurt myself, and then I read it to p_dilla who joined me in cackling. I haven't watched the other movies, but I would totally watch this one.

I am apparently going through reading-ennui/allergy again. I have to learn to stop looking at the sf/f section of bookstores. Our trip to Borders yesterday (Joe wanted to pick up airplane reading) was fairly awful for me. Practically everything I looked at made me feel homicidal. In particular, all the fucking paranormal romance novels whose back-cover copies promise kick-ass heroines who then go on to moon over some fucking vampire or werewolf or other. I was getting to the point where I had narrowed things down to either Richard A. Knaak's Dragonrealm books (which I read in high school, and remember fondly although I wouldn't call them good as such--some picturesque worldbuilding of the D&D-ian school, unsurprisingly since he was one of T$R's writers) or one of the Warhammer 40k tie-ins. Because at least with a Warhammer 40k tie-in there would (a) probably be some gratifying mayhem and (b) I wouldn't have any expectations that it'd be, y'know, good. Although I think good books are overrated. I do not fucking care about good fiction anymore. If I wanted to read good fiction, there is a lot of fiction of probable good quality sitting on my bookshelves at home that I have completely failed to be interested in actually, y'know, reading for the past several years. One day I will stop being so homicidally irritated by sf/f and be able to give sf/f of probable good quality another chance.

Also disappointingly, all the flashbangboom space opera seemed to feature male protagonists. I find this incredibly irksome. There was a book with great blurbs called Debatable Space or something, but opening it up to the first page revealed four fucking exclamation points in a row, and randomly sampling prose from other bits of the book suggested that the prose was going to make me, if possible, even more homicidal. Plus, four fucking exclamation points in a row! If you're going to write like an overwrought brain-damaged teenager at least have the grace to find yourself an editor who will edit the crap out.

I would have liked to pick up K.J. Parker's The Company but Joe flat-out refuses to have any more K.J. Parker in his house. Dammit.

I note with gratitude that Glen Cook's The Dragon Never Sleeps is back in print, although I didn't buy it since I have a copy. That I still haven't finished reading, because I'm flaky that way.

Maybe I should just swear off books altogether. I don't think they bring me pleasure anymore.

At least I still have a gratifyingly large stack of L5R fic printouts to read, and I haven't even finished printing out the Four Winds era yet.

This illustrated history of Chinese emperors is rather hectic and hard to follow if you’re as ignorant of Chinese history as I am, as it’s a 180 page book which begins with the invention of fire and concludes with the Qing Dynasty. Nevertheless, it’s an entertaining introduction to a vast history.

Rather than attempting a summary, I will simply excerpt some of my favorite bits:

In particular, he [Shennong] is remembered for tasting hundreds of wild herbs in order to find remedies to treat his people’s illnesses. In the process, he suffered from poisoning, even to the extent of being poisoned 70 times on a particular day. Eventually, he tasted a lethal wild herb which tore his intestines apart, and it became known as duanchangcao*

*Herb that tears the intestines apart.

…

It may be said that the Qin Dynasty was destroyed by eunuch intervention.

This two-panel comic sequence should give you an idea of the “1000 years of history in 15 minutes” flavor of the book:

Panel 1: Emperor Gaozong (peeking into temple to meet Wu Zetian): “Dear, come back to the palace with me.”

Panel 2: Wu Zetian (with sheaf of papers): “I’ve drafted the 12 Guiding Principles for administrative, military, economic, social, and cultural affairs.”

Emperor Gaozong (holding hand over eyes): “I’m weak in health and have contracted an eye disease. You may decide any good policies.”

I note that there is a companion book, Infamous Chinese Emperors, which I sadly don’t own.

Compiled and Illustrated by Tian Hengyu. View on Amazon: Great Chinese Emperors - Tales of Wise and Benevolent Rule

This illustrated history of Chinese emperors is rather hectic and hard to follow if you’re as ignorant of Chinese history as I am, as it’s a 180 page book which begins with the invention of fire and concludes with the Qing Dynasty. Nevertheless, it’s an entertaining introduction to a vast history.

Rather than attempting a summary, I will simply excerpt some of my favorite bits:

In particular, he [Shennong] is remembered for tasting hundreds of wild herbs in order to find remedies to treat his people’s illnesses. In the process, he suffered from poisoning, even to the extent of being poisoned 70 times on a particular day. Eventually, he tasted a lethal wild herb which tore his intestines apart, and it became known as duanchangcao*

*Herb that tears the intestines apart.

…

It may be said that the Qin Dynasty was destroyed by eunuch intervention.

This two-panel comic sequence should give you an idea of the “1000 years of history in 15 minutes” flavor of the book:

Panel 1: Emperor Gaozong (peeking into temple to meet Wu Zetian): “Dear, come back to the palace with me.”

Panel 2: Wu Zetian (with sheaf of papers): “I’ve drafted the 12 Guiding Principles for administrative, military, economic, social, and cultural affairs.”

Emperor Gaozong (holding hand over eyes): “I’m weak in health and have contracted an eye disease. You may decide any good policies.”

I note that there is a companion book, Infamous Chinese Emperors, which I sadly don’t own.

Compiled and Illustrated by Tian Hengyu. View on Amazon: Great Chinese Emperors - Tales of Wise and Benevolent Rule

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

In the "it's always something" department, the appraiser for the refinancing called yesterday announcing that he would be by Tuesday to appraise the house. I had counted on a couple of weeks' delay; apparently this refinancer moves fast. That means that the rest of the holiday weekend, plus an emergency visit from Clutterboy Monday, will be spent making the inside of the house presentable. AIEEE! Thank God Clutterboy had the time available.

Am following the Irish priest-sexual-abuse scandal. It's following what is by now the established pattern, with the hierarchy resisting any investigation as long as possible, then doing what they are forced to do, then announcing that they're sorry, but they won't do it again, so there's really no need for any more investigation. (There have been only two limited-scope investigations, none covering the entire country.) Furthermore as usual, the Vatican has refused to comment; they wouldn't cooperate with the commission's request for information unless it came through diplomatic channels, and the commission refused to go through diplomatic channels because it was "an independent body", making a nice little knot. The Irish Times called my attention to a refinement of which I was not aware, the "mental reservation". I'd be curious to know if the Times is accurately reporting the practice; the canonical (sic) example is of a priest who doesn't want to deal with a parishioner directing the curate to say that "the priest is not at home", with the mental reservation of "to you". Here's a specific case cited by the Times.

A spokesman for the archdiocese put it like this “we never said we co-operated fully”, placing emphasis on the word “fully”, the report commented.

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Yeah, I know, Thanksgiving was Thursday, ancient history now. Even Native American Day was as long ago as yesterday. (Whose bloody awesome idea was that, having "Native American Day" be Black Friday? But hey, thanks for the afterthought.) However, it finally being the long, slow, holiday weekend, I have finally had time to read the Thanksgiving links that have been spilling across my feedreader ever since Monday.

The Suppressed Speech of Wamsutta (Frank B.) James, Wampanoag, to have been delivered at Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1970

The scenario:

Three hundred fifty years after the Pilgrims began their invasion of the land of the Wampanoag, their "American" descendants planned an anniversary celebration. Still clinging to the white schoolbook myth of friendly relations between their forefathers and the Wampanoag, the anniversary planners thought it would be nice to have an Indian make an appreciative and complimentary speech at their state dinner. Frank James was asked to speak at the celebration. He accepted. The planners, however , asked to see his speech in advance of the occasion, and it turned out that Frank James' views — based on history rather than mythology — were not what the Pilgrims' descendants wanted to hear. Frank James refused to deliver a speech written by a public relations person. Frank James did not speak at the anniversary celebration. If he had spoken, this is what he would have said...

(h/t Stuff White People Do)

Native Blood: The Myth of Thanksgiving

A history of colonialism and capitalism in New England, circa 1620 to 1700, complete with massacres, slavery, double-crossings, and atrocities, all cross-referenced to various American cultural touchstones. Yes, this is every bit as unpleasant a read as you're probably imagining it to be. (Also available as a twenty-three minute podcast.)

(h/t Samia)

The making of the domestic occasion: the history of Thanksgiving in the United States

It's one thing to be able to separate the myth from the history, but the burning question in my mind has continued to be, Why is that mythological crapfest associated with the day at all? Why ruin a nice dinner with family with all that?

So, have a link about the social evolution of Thanksgiving from 1863 (why, yes, that was during the Civil War, but that only partly explains why nation-building mythology is such a significant part of the day) through the present, describing its transformation from a public, street-based festival of costumed rabble to a nice, quiet family dinner with Grandma and football. (Yes, football is explicitly discussed. As is the Macy's parade, and why it is held in the morning. Also, how the schools got so deeply involved in boostering Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.)

There are no massacres in that link, I promise, although there probably are quite a few things you weren't expecting. (Were you expecting Greenwich Village transvestites? They too are part of The Thanksgiving Story.) Also, that article isn't nearly as long as the pagination makes it look; a third of those pages are just references.

(h/t unusualmusic)

ETA xiphias: The Mythology of the Day

Tisquantum and Massoit as people with, yanno, needs, desires, and goals, and who do stuff toward those ends. Pretty much the exact opposite of the video that was irritating me the other day.

(h/t bemusedoutsider, in comments)

I keep writing posts about Supernatural and women and vidding and deleting them unposted, because it's all been said before and no one wants to hear it said again. So have some recs instead:

( Vids )

( Fiction )

This post at Dreamwidth | Dreamwidth comments ()

After pleasing period of rest + physical activity (6 x walkies on the Common, 4 sessions in the gym, 1 Pilates class, 1 Core Conditioning Class) + delicious treatments (I want my home dry-float apparatus!), back home. There were a few crumpled rose-leaves, but the overall experience was so pleasant I could treat these with relative equanimity (where is oursin and what have I done with the hedgehog?) - indeed, the wonky tap in the ladies' loo next to the gym is becoming an old familiar friend, rather like the wonkinesses in one's own home that one has learnt to deal with.

Discovered, from the taxi driver picking me up, that there was a replacement bus service between Haslemere and Guildford - something which had not been entirely manifest on the National Rail site when I checked - so I decided to take the taxi to Guildford rather than hoick self and luggage on and off taxi, bus and train. The drive went past the Devil's Punchbowl, which I hadn't realised was there - the setting of Monica Edwards' 'Punchbowl Farm' series? (I preferred the Romney Marsh ones.)

***

Review of Lived in London: Blue Plaques and the Stories Behind Them edited by Emily Cole by Kathryn Hughes. Qu: surely the name of Flinders Petrie is still relatively well-remembered? Or do I think that because I work more or less round the corner from the UCL Museum of Egyptology that bears his name?

Some novels never quite recover from the brilliance of their opening chapters. WORD.

No, not really:

Geoffrey Moorhouse, who died this week, was a great travel writer, but had also been one of the last gentleman reporters. He was adventurous in many ways: he had one of the first vasectomies, which went wrong, and he gave a hilarious description of phoning London from a bar in rural Ireland to describe the symptoms to his surgeon, while drinkers gave pennies to small boys to fetch their fathers so they could hear it too.

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Reading up on human trafficking for the romance novel, and another cracked out plot bunny reared its fuzzy head. I'm ignoring it. Because my muse is clearly trying to overwhelm me with ideas and I'm going to finish some things before I start anything else. Today should involve writing and hair washing, but we'll see how it all works out. It might just be writing, eating, and napping. Possibly some email answering, but I think I'm mostly caught up on that front. You?

Tags: mundane post is mundane

Current Mood: awake