« August 2004 | Main | October 2004 »
Dorian's best friend is four months older than he is, but is much larger. This works to our advantage, since he now gets hand-me-downs from his friend. On Sunday, we got four huge bags containing ...
Posted by Summer at 09:44 PM
Posted to Summertime
If you don't think this is a real issue in America today, then you haven't been paying attention.
Posted by brian at 03:21 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
I met up with a friend of mine tonight for coffee, who I haven't seen in months upon months, who was also an English major in a previous life. We started talking about literature and he was of the opinion that the Internet's easy access to ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 04:01 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
I hate going this long without posting, but forces have conspired against me. For one thing, almost nothing noteworthy has happened in the last few days. I know that this is a good thing, that my ...
Posted by Summer at 09:22 PM
Posted to Summertime
So, I went out and had a life last night. (Went to see the band Flogging Molly, with The Briggs and The Street Dogs opening up. I guess it's a good way to get out and live a little, even if it was a "school night." There was good music and lots of ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 02:49 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
This is an interesting distinction, first blog in print. Perhaps dead trees falling on newstands ARE heard after all.
Posted by brian at 04:00 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
At the bottom of the final page of Fitzgerald's comments Hemingway wrote, 'Kiss my ass.'
Posted by brian at 05:02 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Anne Rice is busy losing her cool on the Amazon forums. This has been batted all about the blogs, now the "regular" news has picked up the story.
Posted by brian at 03:40 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Yesterday I went shopping with my dear friend Mrs. Stripper Pants. We traveled to our hunting shopping ground of yore, and visited three stores: ...
Posted by Summer at 03:44 PM
Posted to Summertime
The goal, devise a simple logo for Automachina.com. Staring at the page long enough I might discern some patterns in these famous online brandnames. If you see any similarities that might translate into a Super Duper Logo Formulo, let me know.
Posted by brian at 10:37 AM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Over on Bibliotechno, you can find the short list of this year's nominees for the Man Booker Prize. This isn't something I ever paid too much attention to, but maybe now I should, considering my big summer reading pleasures were previous winners/...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 05:52 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
Children that have had to cope with their parent's divorce before kindergarten should be able to understand that "the world is going in a way that's contrary to the rules you're told about"
Posted by brian at 01:24 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Single spaced, that is! So, having been moonlighting a bit helping edit a friend's literary mag and looking through some submissions, and having more than once gotten manuscripts passed to me by friends and acquaintances, I have more than once seen ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 12:05 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
Sorry, I just can't manage to come up with an overarching theme for this one. On to the random updates!1. I announced a ...
Posted by Summer at 02:22 PM
Posted to Summertime
I'm forever interpreting signs and omens. I'ts surprising, then, that I've never noticed this string of September birthdays before, given that mine just passed one week ago. Still trusting in tea leaves has proven mercurial, much like the writing ...
Posted by brian at 10:19 AM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Is anybody planning on participating in National Novel Writing Month in November? I'm trying to come up with some ideas for it. And I would find the link to its web site only right now I'm exceptionally lazy. All you have to write is 50,000 words, ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 04:04 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
As you can see, exhaustion is taking its toll on my judgement.
Posted by brian at 09:25 AM
Posted to Bibliotechno
I read a lot of blogs. Every day I do a full click-through of every blog on my blogroll and quite a few that aren't. There are about five or so that are particular favorites of mine, all authors ...
Posted by Summer at 01:24 AM
Posted to Summertime
So, I signed up for an emailing list from a magazine I have submitted to. I didn't realize that that would fill me with angst. This publication supposedly has a 2-3 month response time for submissions. I haven't heard back for 2+ months and I'm ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 12:06 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
CBS has backed off on their claim that the memos are authentic. It turns out, as I surmised, that the source was Bill Burkett, who now says he lied to CBS about the source of the documents. He claimed that he had received the documents from George ...
Posted by Slidge at 05:14 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
Battleground update (a "battleground" state, to me, is one where neither candidate holds a majority in the most recent poll). Italics indicate a change since the last survey. Arkansas (6 EV, Kerry takes lead 46.6-46.5) Arizona (10 EV, Bush leads 4...
Posted by Slidge at 05:05 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
This is the latest graph of the Electoral Vote tracking poll. It reflects ARG's release of all 50 of their state polls, along with Zogby's update yesterday of their battleground polls, as well as a few polls here and there that are more recent ...
Posted by Slidge at 03:19 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
They made their original money the old fashioned way, with rum, sodomy and the lash.
Posted by brian at 07:40 AM
Posted to Bibliotechno
I left unsaid that while some people DO want to talk about their work, unless it involves taking one's clothes off for money, no one else wants to listen.
Posted by brian at 07:00 AM
Posted to Bibliotechno
I've been having a weird thought lately. Not about literature, per se, but about the advent of blogging. Most blogs started off more as online journals more than anything else. Though now, some have, of course, branched off into targeted subject ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 03:20 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
Yesterday I spent at home alone, running the office by myself, while Vince was leading a jury towards the conviction of a car thief and Dorian enjoyed the company of my mother. Today I once again ...
Posted by Summer at 12:28 AM
Posted to Summertime
She's since given up on publishing and moved on to a field that still contains real integrity, journalism.
Posted by brian at 05:24 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
In genre news, God Sex is apparently the hot new thing.
Posted by brian at 12:10 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Last night I was flipping through the channels trying to find something to watch after Jay and SIlent Bob Strike Back. I briefly landed on E!, which was ...
Posted by Summer at 11:42 PM
Posted to Summertime
Over on Bibliotechno, we were discussing editors, and I asked, "Are editors today worth their salt?" Maybe not, or maybe not lots of them. It's a good question considering that the two latest Harry Potter books could be used as barbells in a daily ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 08:13 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
Okay, so here's the more general overview of the Summer 2004 issue of Tin House. I liked it a lot -- it was definitely a fulfilling and rewarding read, though some of it seemed a little bit "form over function." But, it was worth the $12.95 I laid ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 03:46 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
I've been thinking about happiness and art a lot lately. A few days ago, I was blogging about having written my first short story with a "happy ending." So it was interesting to read about the concept in a touching memoir about Spalding Gray in the ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 03:43 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
These documents have been locked down tighter than my employer's purse strings. Now you, me and our ugly cousins are virtually free to paw all over them.
Posted by brian at 10:52 AM
Posted to Bibliotechno
When Dorian got his first tooth at five months old, we dutifully began brushing his teeth. His first dental hygenie set was from Oral-B, consisting of floride-free "training toothpaste" ...
Posted by Summer at 12:28 AM
Posted to Summertime
A listing of the states as of today that do not have either candidate with a majority in the most recent polls. Arkansas (6 EV, Bush leads 48-47) Colorado (9 EV, Bush leads 46-45) Connecticut (7 EV, Kerry leads 45-38) Maine (4 EV, Kerry leads 48-44)...
Posted by Slidge at 10:16 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
It has been noticed that the Gallup polls (which are used by USA Today and CNN) have been showing much larger leads in the national race for Bush than most other polls are showing. It turns out that Gallup is oversampling Republican voters. Gallup ...
Posted by Slidge at 07:57 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
I believe in these artificial divisions about as much as I do those "sky is falling" no-one-is-reading surveys. I think lots of folks are reading, even talk show hosts are discussing Steinbeck and Gabrial Garcia Marquez.
Posted by brian at 04:48 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
All right, so I am reading the Summer 2004 issue of Tin House. Now, it's suitably enthralling so far, that I suggest it as a market, especially if you're a big fan of form over function. And I plan to do a more review-like sweep once I'm done with ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 10:57 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
After seeing the "evidence" provided by the pro-Bush crowd as they scramble to prove the Killian documents are forgeries, I have to agree with them on a few points. While an IBM Executive Model D typewriter, or an IBM Selectric Composer typewriter, ...
Posted by Slidge at 09:05 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
Sorry people, I've got a screwed-up link for Poppy Z. Brite's blog, which I recommended yesterday. I'm sure that if anybody out there is interested, if you do a Google search on Dispatches from Tanganyika it'll come up. Sorry about that, I've tried ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 03:35 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
If my dear friend who wore the sexy stripper pants with the zippered fleece vest is reading this, could you please send me another email? My computer's current ditziness means that all my messages ...
Posted by Summer at 12:14 AM
Posted to Summertime
I should be dealing with one of the many, many office problems that decided to pop up only after Vince was safely sequestered in the Jury Selection Lounge at the DC Superior Court, but instead, I'll ...
Posted by Summer at 03:38 PM
Posted to Summertime
I am not sure why I created the opening animation, mostly to use a bit of javascript abstraction I'd created. If you'll indulge me, I'll outline it here, in full technical gobbledygook.
Posted by brian at 03:18 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
This is known as "dogfooding", the practise of using the very thing you are selling, in the hope of finding problems or discovering potential improvements.
Posted by brian at 12:30 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
I think I'm a fan of Poppy Z. Brite's LiveJournal. Now, I am a fan of her horror lit, like Lost Souls, so I think I could theoretically qualify as one of the goth geeks that she'd like ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 01:14 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
I thought I'd throw up the most recent graph I have of the tracking poll.
Posted by Slidge at 09:13 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
Bush has cut into Kerry's lead slightly, with Kerry now ahead 222 to 177. CNN (along with USA Today) is releasing several polls throughout the week. I'm not certain, but their polling to date seems awfully biased toward Bush. Not sure what their ...
Posted by Slidge at 09:04 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
Thanks for reminding me, Alyce. The cannon. It was on my mental list of things to write about, but I forgot about it, possibly because it wasn't as traumatic for me as it was for all my guests.<...
Posted by Summer at 07:12 PM
Posted to Summertime
All right, so last week I was rather gleeful about my first-ever happy ending for a short story. (Having explained that generally speaking, if my "relationship horror" lit stories don't end with downright unhappy endings, they generally end with ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 10:47 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
Blade Runner Brilliance, by George Dvorsky. [archive txt] One of the better essays on the meanings and significance of Blade Runner. Interesting insights on particular scenes and quotes and how they are more relevant today than ever....
Posted by Stephen at 09:52 PM
Posted to CoolReading
Kerry leads 222 to 167. Assuming that the polls reflect what was happening in the public mind 7-10 days earlier, the current polls are reflecting attitudes held immediately following the Bush convention. The early numbers don't look encouraging ...
Posted by Slidge at 09:04 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
I am now officially over 30. I'm clinging desperately to the far end of the 18-30 demographic, but the clock is ticking. Another 362 days, and I'll no longer be allowed to watch MTV.We ...
Posted by Summer at 05:24 PM
Posted to Summertime
I know, I know, I harp a little too much about Glimmer Train. But, I saw something interesting when I looked at their site the other day. There was a link with a question, something to the effect of, "Is it even possible to get published by Glimmer ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 05:19 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
Jen, of the blog JMB, has posted her literary magazine live, JMWW. If you get a chance, check it out, there's good stuff there -- in particular, I enjoyed "Roadkill Eulogies," by Oana Capota. Thanks for reading, LLB
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 04:37 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
Also, happy 30th birthday to me.I'll be back tomorrow to spill the beans about my party. So far, though, the birthday gifts I've gotten kick ass.My party's in five hours, and ...
Posted by Summer at 04:54 PM
Posted to Summertime
Yesterday I found myself in Borders and of course, perused the literary magazine shelf. They never have anything too out of the ordinary but of course it's one perfectly legit place to buy some literary rag. I picked up the Summer Fiction issue of ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 02:58 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
So, how many of us would be masochistic enough to send our work to a self-proclaimed bitch? Stephen, who blogs at CoolReading, pointed me to this lovely blog, The Fiction Bitch. Yeah, yeah, it made me laugh out loud. She asks for writers to send ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 12:10 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
It certainly appears that on the surface, some of the documents that CBS brought forward challenging President Bush's version of his Texas Air National Guard record are forged. I've looked at the "evidence" coming from both sides of the story and in ...
Posted by Slidge at 06:13 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
A prowling cat appeared to be hunting mice, and it was not unreasonable to assume that his search would be rewarded.
Posted by brian at 01:33 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Jen, of JMB, recently pointed out Fiction Warehouse as a good market. Thanks for the heads up! They've definitely got some interesting stuff going. Earlier, a few of us were talking about the veracity of fiction contests, but Fiction Warehouse has ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 01:40 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
... to all book lovers, who might consider themselves "geeks." Bibliotechno is up and running, and Brian pointed out a fun pastime in the vein of "Trivial Desires," check out this post. Thanks for reading, LLB
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 01:11 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
This entry is to ask a simple question: is the Summertime Fertility Donation Scheme offensive? Luckily, I have a poll function, so please read this entry and then step to your right and cast your vote. It all started ...
Posted by Summer at 12:44 AM
Posted to Summertime
On 7/29, John Kerry gave his acceptance speech. At that moment, his EV poll total was 244. On 8/5, he hit his high total of 265 EV (which he held for two weeks). That gave Kerry a bounce of +21 from his convention, starting on 8/5 (which was ...
Posted by Slidge at 09:42 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
Nope, I'll freely call myself a geek because I admit I want this.
Posted by brian at 05:13 AM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Sorry things are a bit dull right now, but my literary endeavors are at a standstill at the moment. I'm still working to get through the fall 2004 issue of Glimmer Train, even with the added incentive that I dig my new groovy highlighter pen with ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 04:13 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
Last night I had dinner with Paige Davis. (For my US audience: you know, Perky Paige from Trading Spaces. For my overseas readers: the too-...
Posted by Summer at 01:45 AM
Posted to Summertime
I have a friend. Well, not actually "friend", since we haven't really talked to each other in quite a few years and we keep in touch mostly through fairly loud debates on a mutual mailing list. I have been using him as a filter for the way a lot of ...
Posted by Slidge at 10:07 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
The tracking poll is just beginning to show Bush's bounce from his convention. According to Gallup, it would appear that Bush is going to have a very slight bounce from his convention, and some are interpreting Rassmussen's moving 3-day tracking ...
Posted by Slidge at 09:12 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
So, every once in a while, the deluge of spam makes me seriously wonder about whether the written word can survive the onslaught. Like, those spam messages that are written so poorly, with so many grammar and typing errors, it would make you weep. ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 03:57 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
The Age of the Essay by Paul Graham [archive text] I've been writing/editing Wikipedia articles lately on medieval history topics and so it was with interest I read this article on the nature of writing Essays. Paul Graham provides a...
Posted by Stephen at 07:18 PM
Posted to CoolReading
It's Labor Day. Two years ago on Labor Day, Dorian's cousin was born. Today, on Labor Day, I found out about two new pregnancies -- Moxie's and
Posted by Summer at 02:37 AM
Posted to Summertime
Joe added a new word to his vocabulary during bath time last night. The new word is "duckie", and is prounounced "khzkhz". Joe has also abandoned his favorite word, "Eeeeee", and has replaced it with "Hi".
Posted by Alex at 07:26 PM
Posted to BabyJoe
Most of the rejections I've gotten recently have been personal ones that say to send more stories to those markets. I guess I need to follow my own advice and feel heartened by that fact. Of course, I've got a story submitted to The New Yorker. I ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 03:01 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
Knight-Ridder is reporting that Bob Graham has written a book detailing that agents of the Saudi government aided some of the 9/11 hijackers. Graham is the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and also oversaw (with Porter Goss) ...
Posted by Slidge at 07:16 PM
Posted to GoFYourself
I just went to update the tracking poll for this week (since I've been gone all week) and I was surprised to notice that there were really no polls out this week. Strategic Vision and Rasmussen each released polls, but I haven't been using them ...
Posted by Slidge at 05:03 AM
Posted to GoFYourself
Yesterday I built 217 web pages.I'm not kidding. Vince and I are building our company's new website... and have I mentioned what our company does? We do consular services: travel visas, ...
Posted by Summer at 11:45 PM
Posted to Summertime
Kudos to Blog of a Bookslut -- AGAIN -- for providing this interview with the guys who have launched the new literary magazine Barrelhouse. A lot of the discourse into why these fellows launched the magazine has to do with the state of art today. ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 02:58 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
Well, I guess I'd better pat myself on the back. I think tonight, I managed to actually give a short story a happy ending. Usually, my fiction falls under a new term I've coined (at least I think I coined it): "relationship horror." All about ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 05:19 AM
Posted to LitBlitz
Link. John Kerry gave a midnight rebuttal to President Bush's acceptance speech tonight, and repeated the point that no matter what President Bush promised in his speech, he has still yet to deliver on the promises he made four years ago. And ...
Posted by Slidge at 05:43 AM
Posted to GoFYourself
Link. John Kerry gave a midnight rebuttal to President Bush's acceptance speech tonight, and repeated the point that no matter what President Bush promised in his speech, he has still yet to deliver on the promises he made four years ago. And ...
Posted by Slidge at 05:43 AM
Posted to GoFYourself
I've been eagerly awaiting the return of Night Train for quite some time, as it stopped accepting submissions a while back and at the time, said it would return by August's end. I just stopped by the site to check on it, and now it won't be ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 07:56 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
I've been eagerly awaiting the return of Night Train for quite some time, as it stopped accepting submissions a while back and at the time, said it would return by August's end. I just stopped by the site to check on it, and now it won't be ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 07:56 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
So, I previously blogged about my strange writerly affection for office supply stores like Staples. I popped into one yesterday, since it's my vacation and what better time to go to such a store for the hustle and bustle but back-to-school season? ...
Posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 05:24 PM
Posted to LitBlitz
A warning to the uninterested: a brief technical summary of how the FreakBlog works follows. I'm documenting the mechanics here, as a double decker bus may just kill ,well if not the both of us then, at the least, me. and there needs to ...
Posted by brian at 04:52 PM
Posted to Bibliotechno
Yesterday I finished putting the new cabinet pulls on all the kitchen cabinets. It turned out to be a two day job, since I can only work during naptimes, and also because it takes a long time to scrub kitchen ...
Posted by Summer at 01:43 PM
Posted to Summertime