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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 | |
talkngptsmemo
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12:50a |
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talkngptsmemo
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12:30a |
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| Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 |
matociquala
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8:55p |
i say you're either a lover or you are a liar
When done right, comics are a cognitive whetstone, providing two or three or more different but entangled streams of information in a single panel. Processing what you’re being shown, along with what’s being said, along with what you’re being told, in conjunction with the shifting multiple velocities of imaginary time, and the action of the space between panels that Scott McCloud defines as closure...
--Warren Ellis Word. I have actually tried to do this in prose: Blood & Iron is the result, and as many can testify, using only one input stream for all those entangled information threads results in almost headsplitting density and limited success. (In your average comic panel, the streams may be visual/art/action/scene setting, narration, internalization, dialogue/thought, and white space. Yeah, think about that for a moment, and consider that maybe I missed one. Or two. And that they can contradict or ironicize each other.) Comics are cool. They are an interstitial art form all in their lonesome. Current Mood:  accomplishedCurrent Music: Eurythmics & Aretha Franklin - Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves |
bentolunch
[ midorionna ]
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8:35p |
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jaylake
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4:19p |
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crowleycrow
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8:03p |
Coincie-dincie
At Readercon (as in other venues) I was caught up in a conversation about Coincidence, and divination, prophetic dream, and all that class of experience, which it was generally agreed is only a function of noting or selecting from out of the vast and pelting river of experience those few items that are of interest to us, which stand out only because we note them. I say it was agreed, but (as usual) somewhat dutifully, and even sadly. Anyway today I was reading the Advance Reading Copy of Nicholson Baker's new book, which I'm to review, which is about a poet who is devoted to rhyme, and on an early page he quotes from Edward Lear, "The Pelican Chorus": "Plumpskin, Ploshkin, pelican jill. We think so then, we thought so still." Then later in the day I open the new TLS and there in the "NB" snippets section, there's the same, quoted at slightly greater length, and differently punctuated: Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee! We think no birds as happy as we! Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill! We think so then, and we thought so still!" So if any of you have recently been reading, or remembering, or thinking about, or opening an old childhood book ( Nonsense Songs and Stories) and your eye falling on j ust that exact poem then we will have one of those astonishing, amazing coincidences, that wow must mean something, but what? Nabokov called coincidence "A piece of pattern for which there is no use" -- or something -- can anyone correct that for me? |
jaylake
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4:16p |
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jaylake
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4:13p |
[cancer] They found my oncologist on the coverage list
Well, today insurance has found my oncologist, thanks largely to the persistence of the medical administrator from my clinic. Apparently my doctor's fairly new at the clinic, and it takes a long time for the provider lists to update. Perhaps their computers are coal-fired. I've been warned it may be a month or more before claims for her services will be properly covered, but I've also been assured by both the clinic and the insurance company that once the system is straightened out everything will be rebilled dating back to my first visit with her. So a large hassle is now a small hassle. And we soldier bravely on. |
jpsorrow
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8:05p |
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crowleycrow
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7:50p |
Charles Brown RIP
Since it is now known almost everywhere, I reveal nothing in an untimely fashion by noting the passing of Charles Brown, eternal editor of Lucus magazine, tireless chronicler of the SF/F world. He was on his way home on the plane to California and died without fuss in his seat. Charles interviewed me at Readercon: I was his last Locus interview, oddly. So much about death is odd. Yet I can say that Charles Brown had what we in the Catholic Church called a good death: having just visited and spent time among many he loved and admired, who returned his admiration, and who he knew were indebted to him for his long toiling in the vineyard, which I think did not seem like toil to him, and vanishing away on his return home again. My own last image of him is stretched out, after a fine and lengthy dinner, on his bed in his hotel room, where I was being interviewed -- actually interviewing myself; he contributed remarks rather than questions -- with Peter Straub and the faithful Amelia. I'd hope Locus might publish the whole of that recording, more conversation than interview; a last remembrance. |
matociquala
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8:00p |
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mind_hacks
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6:00p |
Is brain death, death?
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2009/07/is_brain_death_deat.html  The New Atlantis magazine has an in-depth article discussing the difficulty in defining death and why arguments about the brain have become central to understanding the final curtain.
The article is a little bit wordy in places but does a great job of exploring the philosophy of death definitions and why these have direct practical applications in medicine.
Not least in 'pulling the plug' decisions and the removal of organs from people who have been declared brain dead even while their body is still functioning on life support.
Another way forward is to confess that all this time the real reason why the neurological standard seemed palatable was that the patient with total brain failure has lost consciousness and will never regain it.
All the talk about the body no longer being a whole was just a distraction. The pulsing heartbeat, the warm skin, all the integrated work of the body—these are indicators that the body is alive but not the person.
And it is the life of the person that demands protection, in this case from being made into a source for organs. This kind of dualism opens the door, of course, to the possibility that there are more “personless” bodies—that, for instance, some patients with severe dementia or PVS [persistent vegetative state] might meet the description.
Link to article 'What and When Is Death?'
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mind_hacks
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12:00p |
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mind_hacks
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8:00a |
Unique like everyone else
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2009/07/unique_like_everyone.html  You've probably heard of the many cognitive bias studies where the vast majority of people rate themselves as among the best. Like the fact that 88% of college students rate themselves in the top 50% of drivers, 95% of college professors think they do above average work, and so on.
In light of this, I've just found a wonderfully ironic study that found that the majority of people rate themselves as less susceptible to cognitive biases than the average person.
It's work from psychologist Emily Pronin who studies insight into our own judgements and how it affects our social understanding and perception of others.
In this study, the participants (psychology students no less), were given a booklet explaining how cognitive biases work that described eight of the most common ones. They were then asked to rate how susceptible they were to each of the biases and then how susceptible the 'average American' was.
Each rated themselves as less affected by biases than other people, instantly causing an irony loop in the fabric of space and time.
The study also had a fantastic follow-up that demonstrated just how strongly these cognitive biases affect our thinking. Even when they're pointed out, we can't escape them:
Participants in one follow-up study who showed the better than-average bias insisted that their self-assessments were accurate and objective even after reading a description of how they could have been affected by the relevant bias.
Participants in a final study reported their peer's self-serving attributions regarding test performance to be biased but their own similarly self-serving attributions to be free of bias.
Pronin calls this the 'bias blind spot' and you can read the full study online as a pdf file. Pronin also wrote an excellent 2008 review, also available as a pdf, on how these biases mean we see ourselves differently from how we see others, because we have direct access to our own minds but only observations of other people.
pdf of 'bias blind spot' study.
Link to DOI entry for same.
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talkngptsmemo
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11:04p |
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talkngptsmemo
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10:20p |
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bentolunch
[ jodea ]
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5:18p |
Photos galore
Visiting my best boy friend and so I get to make him bentos for work three days a week. So, here are the ones I have remembered to take pictures of since last Monday (well Tuesday, really, I forgot to take pictures the first day).  Close up of side bento Pepper strips ranch dressing pretzel sticks peach jello cup strawberries blueberries ( several more lunches ) |
burger_eater
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2:06p |
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talkngptsmemo
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9:28p |
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talkngptsmemo
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9:13p |
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ecmyers
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5:29p |
2 things I like: Clarion West and KGB readings
If you're in NYC, you should come to tomorrow night's KGB Fantastic Fiction Reading, featuring Samuel R. Delany, Jack Womack, Cat Rambo, and Kris Dikeman, with guest host Rajan Khanna. This special reading of CW instructors and graduates is to raise awareness (and hopefully donations) for the Clarion West Writers Workshop. For a limited time, Amazon has promised to match every dollar donated to CW, so now is the time to double your contribution to a good cause! On that note, thank you to everyone who is sponsoring me in this summer's CW Write-a-thon, now that I know who you are! You are all awesome for supporting me and CW. I have been logging my promised seven hours of writing each week (roughly an hour a day), and then some. It's been mostly freelance blogging work lately, to be honest, but I finally started a new short story this morning, and if I can finish that soon I have some story revisions lined up next. It's been a busy summer! I owe donations to a few of my fellow writers in the Write-a-thon as well, which I'll be acting on in the next few days. I also want to pass on a link to an article that does a really good job of defining what makes a novel suitable for "young adult" (YA) readers versus "middle grade" (MG): http://ididntchoosethis.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-ya.html This distinction plagues many a reader and writer, and I hope this author's insights clear things up. But the best way to discover YA fiction is to read it yourself, which I also highly recommend. |
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talkngptsmemo
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8:58p |
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talkngptsmemo
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8:34p |
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tammy212
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4:53p |
Brutes among us, 2
A number of posters in the first post reminded me that when David Letterman chose to flap his mouth in saying of the attendance of Palin, her husband, and one of her daughters at a New York ballgame: "during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez." (No, I didn't like it, either.) When Palin fired off that it was disgusting for a 62-year-old man to make remarks of that kind about a 14-year-old girl, the daughter who was with her (and it is), Letterman replied that he was actually talking about 18-year-old Bristol, who had recently given birth. Then came the whole Palin call for battle, and Letterman's grand and carefully thought out apology in which he acknowledged how inappropriate the material was, no matter how old the teenager was. (No, David, ya think? Just because it's female doesn't mean it's a sex vessel to be hooted at wherever you may be. Yay, you apologized. You did it because you had a clusterfuck on your hands that would leave a stain on your career, not because you evolved to a higher plane of mental function.) Where does this bring me to "brutes among us"? Who rose up crying "Foul!"? Who came to the defense of the wronged females, mother and daughters? Who called out Letterman on charges of smarminess, Palin attackage, and child defamation? Why, the Republican Party, of course! The same Grand Old Racist Party that embraces members who trash-talk eleven-year-olds in hot weather outfits, referring to them as prostitutes! The same people who speculated on that eleven-year-old's first abortion made the Internet, radio, and television airwaves clang with their righteous indignation over Letterman's cheap shot at two white girls. See, I wouldn't put it past Letterman to speculate about Malia's sexual existence in another eight years. He is mean and small-souled to everyone. So the Racist Party will defend white girls and vilify girls of color. And Letterman will imply girls of all colors are hos if they're old enough. (He says he won't. We'll see.) You know, maybe our Victorian ancestors were right, and politics really is too filthy for decent people. It certainly seems to bring out the sewer rat in some of them. And you notice how the person who gets the brunt of their trash rhetoric always turns out to be female? Don't tax me on Palin. You know she trashes other women worse than she trashes men. Current Mood:  angryCurrent Music: "The Devil Never Sleeps," Iron & Wine |
eddygrrl
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1:56p |
Writer's retreat day 3: Hmm, guess it's time to start writing...
A friend has been kind enough to loan me her house while she's away for 10 days in exchange for catsitting duties. With Write-a-Thon in full swing I figured there was no better time to sequester myself away for a writing intensive week. However, since I'mnow approaching day 4 i guess it's time to buckle down and get some work done. To make a few excuses, I had a job interview Friday and an appointment on Monday but Sunday I wrote for four full hours which was enormously exhausing and rewarding and at least put my daily average to a little over an hour of writing time. So this, after feeding and cleaning up after kitty, I ran to the grocery store for supplies then I made myself a tasty BLT watched and episode of Rome and sat down to write. Let the writer's retreat begin! After squeezing two thousand measly words out of my brain I am feeling like a kid on the last day of school. It doesn't help that Seattle decided to be beautiful today after much deliberation most of the morning. I am repeating over and over: "Butt in chair, butt in chair." Until I can sing-song it to the tune of Three Blind Mice. Okay time to change gears. Taking an hour break and then maybe I'll work on the Strange re-write and not worry about the new stuff for a while. Time to go see what the garden is up to today. Current Mood:  annoyedCurrent Music: emiliana torrini, Me and Armini |
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