TheMadAdmin

Yesterday, I wrote an article for a book that will actually be out fairly soon. More details once the contracts are signed, but the editor liked the piece, which is the important part.

Today, I have a meeting that may lead to a nice little gig. Tonight, I'm having dinner with the Forebearance.

terri_osborne is making good progress on the move, with occasional help from me. I've been talking to prospective roommates, who should be able to look at the place next week.

I'm not going to Arisia this year, but I will be in the Boston area that weekend: I'm going to ALA Midwinter on BOOM!'s dime to help promote their comics to the library world.

Farscape #7 was approved by Henson, which means I need to write #8. But first, I finish chapter two of the urban fantasy. Cha cha cha.

As a member of Parliament, Sir Isaac Newton spoke only once. He asked for an open window.

A user with the name of "captcalhoun" responded to a thread on the Trek BBS's TrekLit forum called "Best Trek Author?" like so:

Best for Action, Death and Destruction Whilst Retaining Interesting Characters: David Mack

Best for Science Whilst Retaining an Interesting Plot and Not Coming Off Like a Text Book: Christopher L Bennett

Best for Politics and Stuff Whilst Being Interesting: Keith DeCandido

Best for LOL Humour and Retaining the Spirit of TOS: Peter David

Best for Capturing the Essence of TOS With New Characters: Dayton Ward/Kevin Dilmore

Best For Making Voyager Better Than the Show: Kirsten Beyer

I'll take it...

In its first two years of existence, the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers gave their Grandmaster Award to Donald Bain and Alan Dean Foster. Then they irrevocably lowered their standards by giving one to me. *wry grin*

This year, they do a great deal to regain their dignity by giving it to someone who actually deserves it again, to wit, the great William Johnston.

Bravo!

"MedievalDragon" over at Blizzplanet.com has put up an excellent (and detailed) overview and review of StarCraft: Ghost Academy #1.

Money quote:

Did you read Starcraft: Ghost Nova? Then you will love reading Starcraft: Ghost Academy as it's written by the same author: Keith R.A. DeCandido -- who participated in the shaping of the main character and its world. Awesome job, Keith! Fernando Heinz Furukawa is the artist of this manga. The artwork is very enjoyable and consistent. Rich facial expressions really help to transmit each character's emotions throughout the plot. I am not into manga, but I truly dig Furukawa's style.

Overall, a good read, as expected from the writing-calibre of Keith R.A. DeCandido.

January 4, 1961, was a great day for all the longhairs in Copenhagen, Denmark--it was the day the barbers' assistants ended their thirty-three-year-long strike.

Anime Sentinel has written a nice review of StarCraft: Ghost Academy #1.

Meanwhile, StarCraftWire.net has put up a preview of the manga on their site. The images are a bit small, but you can see what an amazing job Fernando Heinz Furukawa did with the artwork, at least....

It's on YouTube, so it must be true!

Okay, not really, but it's pretty damn funny....






("Oh four tuna, bring more tuna....")

Shortly after sunset, one can see a bright beacon of light called the Evening Star over the western horizon. There's no use wishing on this star, as it is an impostor--it's actually the planet Venus.

I haven't posted much personal stuff on this blog since terri_osborne and I broke up at the end of April. This was a deliberate choice. While this is still my personal blog, I'd like to keep it professional, if you know what I mean.

However, while Terri and I did split eight months ago, it took until now for us to stop living together. Originally, she was to move to another apartment in the building, but then our landlord needed to give the apartment to their handyman, who lost his apartment due to a change in ownership of the building he and his wife were living in.

Since then, the handyman has had the apartment (and the job as handyman) taken away from him for a variety of reasons, not least being the time I had to call the police due to an argument between the handyman's son and the son's pregnant girlfriend that sounded like it was leading to violence.

Yeah.

Needless to say, Terri got the apartment right quick, amidst apologies from the landlord. She's in the process of moving right now. She started sleeping down there Saturday night, and starting late yesterday, she took Marcus and Aoki.

There was never any doubt that she would take the cats when she and I stopped living together. Marcus has been her cat since 1992 when he was six weeks old. And Cus-Cus needs his bratty younger sister, as he's getting older and crankier, and Aoki keeps him active. Basically, Marcus needs Aoki more than I do.

But last night was really really really hard. Aoki's been one of my greatest sources of constant joy since we brought her home from Bide-a-Wee in 2004. Yesterday was the last time she'll sit on my hip while I take a nap, the last time she'll rest on my tummy when I'm asleep, the last time she'll wander up to my desk chair and mrow and me hoping for scritches, the last time she'll sit on my lap while I'm working at the computer, the last time she'll knock my deodorant off the bureau because there's no food in the food bowl.

I will adjust. And there are very likely to be more cats in my future.

But Aoki will always be my little girl. She was the first cat that was truly in any way mine -- I inherited Marcus and Mittens when Terri moved in with me -- and I miss her horribly.

Paul Revere didn't make the infamous midnight ride from Lexington to Concord--he was captured by British forces and had to walk home because they kept his horse. Samuel Prescott, however, did make the ride, but it's doubtful he shouted, "The British are coming!" because nearly everyone living in America at that time was a British subject. Revere is revered because of the factually incorrect poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

According to Harold Camping, the notion that the world will end in 2012 is a "like a fairy tale." He scoffs at the ludicrous notion based on silly, unsubstantiated superstition.

In fact, he says, the world will end in 2011, and he has biblical "authority" to prove it.

Yup.

Somehow it didn't seem like it would be that bad when I started entering the 7 December one.

Oops.

More substantive posting, as well as the first Stupid History, later on.....

President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II (1946)

NEW YEAR'S EVE

If New Year's eve night wind blow SOUTH,
It betokeneth warmth and growth;
If WEST, much milk, and fish in the sea;
If NORTH, much cold, and storms there will be;
If EAST, the trees will bear much fruit;
If NORTH-EAST, flee it man & brute.

---A Countryman's Calendar: Sayings for the Months, Gerald Cooper Bateman, 1927


The opera ain't over until the fat lady sings.
Anonymous

Bo Diddley born (1928)

OMENS OF NEW YEAR'S DAY

On New Year's Day never throw out anything, not even dirty water.

Do not give away anything, particularly money, on New Year's Day.

Whatever wrong you do on New Year's Day, you will do for the rest of the year.

If you get up late on New Year's morning, you will get up late every morning for the rest of the year.

It is the custom always to keep a coin in the purse, espeically on New Year's Day, for fear one will be short of money during the year.

---Wintemberg & Wintemberg, "Folk-Lore from Grey County, Ontario," The Journal of American Folklore, 1918


It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead for a year.
Tom Lehrer (1928-)

The world's first ironclad warship, the HMS Warrior, was launched in the UK (1860)

ON THE PERILS OF FLIRTING

By the majority of people, flirtation is looked upon as harmless, if not useful, as some even consider, claiming that the experience gained by such associations is valuable to young persons, by making them familiar with the customs of society and the ways of the world. We have not the slightest hesitation in pronouncing flirtation as pernicious in the extreme. It exerts a malign influence alike upon the mental, the moral, and the physical constitution of those who indulge it., The young lady who has become infatuated with a passion for flirting, courting the society of young men simply for the pleasure derived from their attentions, is educating herself in a school which will totally unfit her for the enjoyment of domestic peace and happiness should she have all the conditions necessary for such enjoyment other than those which she herself must furnish. More than this, she is very likely laying the foundation for lifelong disease by the dissipation, late hours, late suppers, evening exposures, fashionable dressing, etc., the almost certain accompaniments of the vice we are considering.

---J.H. Kellogg, M.D., Plain Facts for Old and Young, 1881


I prefer temperance hotels--although they sell worse kinds of liquor than any other kind of hotels.
Artemus Ward (1834-67)

Dentist William E. Semple of Mount Vernon, Ohio, received a patent for chewing gum (1869)

ON ONE'S DEMEANOR

WALK groundly
TALK profoundly
DRINK roundly
SLEEP soundly


ZUMBOORUKCHEE--one who shoots mounted on a camel
"When a zumboorukchee gets the hump, he shoots."

Queen Juliana of the Netherlands granted sovereignty to Indonesia after more than 300 years of Dutch rule (1949)

ZIP CODES

The Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) Code was introduced on July 1, 1963, to cope with a business demand that had grown to 80 percent of all mail. A number of coding systems had been mooted in the past, and the ZIP Code grew out of a "zoning address" system developed in 1943 and later "Metro System" of 552 sectional centers, each serving 40-150 post offices., The 5-digit ZIP Code was structured thus:

First digit: broad geographical area in the USA (e.g., 0=Northeast)
2nd & 3rd digits: sectional center accessible to the transport network
4th & 5th digits: small post offices or postal zones in large cities

Initially, ZIP Codes were optional. In 1967 bulk senders of 2nd- and 3rd-class mail were obliged to use the codes, and over time ZIP Codes became commonplace. In 1983, the ZIP Code was expanded by an optional extra 4 digits. The "ZIP+4" Code helps identify a specific geographical segment within the delivery zone, such as a city block, an office building, or an organization that received an unusually large volume of mail.


A camel is a horse designed by a committee.
Alec Issigonis [attrib.] (1906-88)