Oh, Timothy Hallinan. You were so, so close to an outstanding book. I was really regretting that Crashed was released as a $15 trade paperback, because I was thinking this series was something I wanted my very own copies of and that's more than I'll generally pay for a book. Engaging characters, interesting plot, and a really compelling writing ( Read more... )

I've been wanting to say something about the Hugo-host kerfuffle, but haven't been able to come up with something that encapsulates it without frothing at the mouth. To my surprise, my housemate nailed it. I'd told her about the kerfuffle, and she was pretty upset by it, not least because an author she really liked and respected displayed extreme ( Read more... )

The last time we had our propane filled, the delivery guy took the time to come up to the house to tell us we're terrific. This is a lovely thing to hear, of course, and quite made my day. But the reason for it also made me want to weep for the human race, because what had we done that was so impressive? We'd called for a fill when the tank was ( Read more... )

Meant to post this a while ago. Oh well, it'll likely be relevant again, more's the pity.

A little while ago, Chuck Wendig posted one of his lists, this one about How To Be Outraged On The Internet. And it's Wendig, so it's a pretty good list, and I even agree with parts of it (though only parts), but he did miss one thing ( Read more... )

Honestly, people, the only appropriate response to an article that asserts that things "that only women would find attractive" are "right out of Alexander Dumas" is to laugh derisively and move on to something actually worthy of your time and attention.

This entry was originally posted at http://lizvogel.dreamwidth.org/90622.html because ( Read more... )

So I was at the store today, as one occasionally is. The total came to $80.10, and having just been to the bank, I handed the cashier a hundred dollar bill and a dime. She typed it into the cash register wrong, so she had to figure out the change herself.

Except she couldn't do it.

No, really. She had to call over her supervisor to help her do ( Read more... )

We stopped for a bite last night at the local branch of Claddagh Irish Pubs, which I suspect is about as Irish as green beer, but we like the food and for once they weren't having live music. This is one of those places that has shelves all around the eating areas, and the shelves are filled with a mishmash of decorative objects, including a lot ( Read more... )

We have cable. We insisted on getting cable rather than satellite when we bought this house (lo, these many moons ago) for one very simple reason: It meant we could program multiple shows on multiple VCRs without having to plead for our signal through a separate tuner box, or be limited to whatever single channel a tuner box might be set to at ( Read more... )

LiveJournal's new Update page is so broken in my browser of choice that I literally can't use it. I could maybe get around the userpic lookup, the mood lookup, and the tag lookup not working, but those geniuses have pushed an Update page on which even the Post button doesn't work ( Read more... )

I've been sitting on this post, but I'm going to have to put it up to get it out of my head. Because I'm angry. Not at the knee-jerk hysteria or the media circus, though those are certainly aggravating; no, I'm angry at one man ( Read more... )