Linkspam is ready for the rain to stop
This is not encouraging news for those of us who use Gmail and Google Reader and Google Docs. I'm just saying.
So remember yesterday Gizmodo posted pictures and discussion of the new iPhone, which some poor dude left in a bar? What if it was all a fake? Mwahahah!
I found this discussion of political assassinations pretty interesting. In sum: they generally do not achieve their goals of destabilizing the groups in question, and in fact may serve to galvanize them instead. Woops!
So Stephen Ambrose, who died a few years ago, wrote a biography of President Eisenhower based on hundreds of hours of interviews. Or possibly not; the records in the Eisenhower archives indicate that Ambrose only ever met the former President for a total of five hours.
Folks on the Peninsula might be interested to hear that Megan Whalen Turner is going to be at Kepler's next Monday evening. You should go! Tell her about her enthusiastic LJ-based fandom!
*
I have read some of the (oh, so many!) essays discussing Mary Sue. I'm not going to talk about it in any detail here, but I am going to point to this NPR blog post about the term "hipster", which suffers from much the same problem. It's a perjorative that is so undefined as to be basically useless as any kind of descriptive. It's basically just a word that says, "I have better taste than [whoever I determine to be a hipster]". Much like "Mary Sue" is just a word that says, "I have better taste than to approve of this female character."
And both terms are used to validate the speaker's objective taste in matters of culture, rather than to enhance or encourage any actual kind of dialogue.
Huh.
*
TNC asks about audiobooks today, and there are some good recommendations in the comments. If I were registered to comment there, I would recommend Pratchett novels as being excellent fodder for audiobooks, especially the ones read by Stephen Briggs. And now I'll have to go look for The Moth podcast that someone mentioned.
Which, it's not like I don't have enough podcasts already, since I listen to: On the Media, This American Life, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Stuff You Missed in History Class, and Stuff You Should Know ETA:--oh, and Radio Lab, which is awesome! End edit. Plus sundry other things as they come to me. Anyone have any other podcasts to recommend?
Oh! Speaking of audio fiction! I have more podfic! templemarker recorded None But Ourselves (the Redemption Song Remix) (SG-1, Teal'c, gen)! You can find the link here, and I suspect that the story will shortly be up at the Audiofic Archive.
Yay podfic! Thank you,
temple!
*
I have a very poor eye for fashion. In that I can tell when other people look well-put-together, but I often stumble around the bedroom in the morning, throwing rejected clothes on the bed and growling in frustration. (Today I abandoned four different scarves, and eventually went with a teal alpaca wrap I bought in Peru on top of my black blouse and A-line jean skirt.) Anyway, I therefore really appreciate posts like this, which tell you how to wear belts.
In other fashion news, I blame Academichic and Vonnie for the fact that I spent Too Much Money at the J Crew sale last night. But frankly, it's not that easy to find work-appropriate quality clothing for reasonable prices that's neither too young nor too staid, especially since I don't need to wear suits but once in a blue moon. Anyway, I really like J Crew's dresses, but I have no reason to buy one, so instead I bought three shirts, two sweaters, and a jacket. I hope the jacket works: it's pewter, and I fear it won't work with my hair, but the only other color was black, and I wear enough black as it is.
Which reminds me: I have to take two pairs of slacks to the tailor. One pair is new, and Too Long: the hem just drags the ground in my standard 2.5" heels; and the other pair is Too Short because I bought them when I was mostly just wearing flats and loafers. Such a hassle, but thank goodness for tailors who can fix all that for you.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments; comment here or there.
So remember yesterday Gizmodo posted pictures and discussion of the new iPhone, which some poor dude left in a bar? What if it was all a fake? Mwahahah!
I found this discussion of political assassinations pretty interesting. In sum: they generally do not achieve their goals of destabilizing the groups in question, and in fact may serve to galvanize them instead. Woops!
So Stephen Ambrose, who died a few years ago, wrote a biography of President Eisenhower based on hundreds of hours of interviews. Or possibly not; the records in the Eisenhower archives indicate that Ambrose only ever met the former President for a total of five hours.
Folks on the Peninsula might be interested to hear that Megan Whalen Turner is going to be at Kepler's next Monday evening. You should go! Tell her about her enthusiastic LJ-based fandom!
*
I have read some of the (oh, so many!) essays discussing Mary Sue. I'm not going to talk about it in any detail here, but I am going to point to this NPR blog post about the term "hipster", which suffers from much the same problem. It's a perjorative that is so undefined as to be basically useless as any kind of descriptive. It's basically just a word that says, "I have better taste than [whoever I determine to be a hipster]". Much like "Mary Sue" is just a word that says, "I have better taste than to approve of this female character."
And both terms are used to validate the speaker's objective taste in matters of culture, rather than to enhance or encourage any actual kind of dialogue.
Huh.
*
TNC asks about audiobooks today, and there are some good recommendations in the comments. If I were registered to comment there, I would recommend Pratchett novels as being excellent fodder for audiobooks, especially the ones read by Stephen Briggs. And now I'll have to go look for The Moth podcast that someone mentioned.
Which, it's not like I don't have enough podcasts already, since I listen to: On the Media, This American Life, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Stuff You Missed in History Class, and Stuff You Should Know ETA:--oh, and Radio Lab, which is awesome! End edit. Plus sundry other things as they come to me. Anyone have any other podcasts to recommend?
Oh! Speaking of audio fiction! I have more podfic! templemarker recorded None But Ourselves (the Redemption Song Remix) (SG-1, Teal'c, gen)! You can find the link here, and I suspect that the story will shortly be up at the Audiofic Archive.
Yay podfic! Thank you,
temple!
*
I have a very poor eye for fashion. In that I can tell when other people look well-put-together, but I often stumble around the bedroom in the morning, throwing rejected clothes on the bed and growling in frustration. (Today I abandoned four different scarves, and eventually went with a teal alpaca wrap I bought in Peru on top of my black blouse and A-line jean skirt.) Anyway, I therefore really appreciate posts like this, which tell you how to wear belts.
In other fashion news, I blame Academichic and Vonnie for the fact that I spent Too Much Money at the J Crew sale last night. But frankly, it's not that easy to find work-appropriate quality clothing for reasonable prices that's neither too young nor too staid, especially since I don't need to wear suits but once in a blue moon. Anyway, I really like J Crew's dresses, but I have no reason to buy one, so instead I bought three shirts, two sweaters, and a jacket. I hope the jacket works: it's pewter, and I fear it won't work with my hair, but the only other color was black, and I wear enough black as it is.
Which reminds me: I have to take two pairs of slacks to the tailor. One pair is new, and Too Long: the hem just drags the ground in my standard 2.5" heels; and the other pair is Too Short because I bought them when I was mostly just wearing flats and loafers. Such a hassle, but thank goodness for tailors who can fix all that for you.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments; comment here or there.