Tidbits
1. This is probably the most exciting few days in television in recent memory. In rapid succession are coming the Lost Season 4 finale, the Scripps Spelling Bee, the premiere of Season 3 of Venture Bros., and the premiere of "Season 3" of The Mole (I'll ignore the celebrity versions). I've been waiting two weeks, one year, and over a year (x2) for each of these, all with great anticipation.
2. I was disheartened earlier this week when I was trying to list out the tracks on OK Computer to demonstrate to a non-album music listener how solid the album is and how all the songs build thematically when, after No Surprises, I blanked on the last two. No problem through the first ten, just those two. Even after being clued via Britney Spears into track 11, my mind had reset the sound of that song to an acoustic Maida Vale Studio show where No Surprises follows Lucky and so it was like track 11 led me back to 10 and not onto 12. So I was still being stymied by my "theme" song from getting the last track. I was a bit vindicated that wikipedia says Thom Yorke initially wanted to end the album at No Surprises, and there is a gap in the spacing of the last two songs on some listing of the album to separate those two from the rest.
3. I was similarly disheartened when I was playing with anagrams earlier this week after coming up with a reason to dislike the Spurs and Tony Parker because he writes "Rank Poetry". While I'd created "MATH'S SO NERDY" as an anagram of my name in grad school for when I write puzzles, I realized that I could just as easily use SHADY MONSTER. I'm left to wonder if people see me for the kind of thing my name anagrams to. It at least suggests a cryptic clue: "World's Sudoku Champ is just a confused, shady monster."
4. I got a signed contract back for my next book, Mutant Sudoku, so that project is off the ground officially to arrive in '09. It is described in the contract as "144 pages of Sudoku variants from a world puzzle champion and a world sudoku champion." Since that description does not yet completely fit me, you can probably guess my co-author. I'm really excited to collaborate with him and I think this will be a phenomenal project and hopefully the first of several.
2. I was disheartened earlier this week when I was trying to list out the tracks on OK Computer to demonstrate to a non-album music listener how solid the album is and how all the songs build thematically when, after No Surprises, I blanked on the last two. No problem through the first ten, just those two. Even after being clued via Britney Spears into track 11, my mind had reset the sound of that song to an acoustic Maida Vale Studio show where No Surprises follows Lucky and so it was like track 11 led me back to 10 and not onto 12. So I was still being stymied by my "theme" song from getting the last track. I was a bit vindicated that wikipedia says Thom Yorke initially wanted to end the album at No Surprises, and there is a gap in the spacing of the last two songs on some listing of the album to separate those two from the rest.
3. I was similarly disheartened when I was playing with anagrams earlier this week after coming up with a reason to dislike the Spurs and Tony Parker because he writes "Rank Poetry". While I'd created "MATH'S SO NERDY" as an anagram of my name in grad school for when I write puzzles, I realized that I could just as easily use SHADY MONSTER. I'm left to wonder if people see me for the kind of thing my name anagrams to. It at least suggests a cryptic clue: "World's Sudoku Champ is just a confused, shady monster."
4. I got a signed contract back for my next book, Mutant Sudoku, so that project is off the ground officially to arrive in '09. It is described in the contract as "144 pages of Sudoku variants from a world puzzle champion and a world sudoku champion." Since that description does not yet completely fit me, you can probably guess my co-author. I'm really excited to collaborate with him and I think this will be a phenomenal project and hopefully the first of several.