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Random Tidbits

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. For the past few weeks I've been experiencing some fairly severe back pain, and while my disk herniation nine years ago has taught me to be very accepting of chronic pain, I'm still not able to be very productive while experiencing it. Fortunately, my chiropractor expects that I'll make a full recovery. (He's about 80% sure.) In the meantime, here are a few unrelated tidbits to fill some space:

  • I just finished reading Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson (one of my favorite authors). The notable thing about this book is that one of the characters is absurdly similar to Snowball's X. The parallels just go on and on. I laughed and laughed as I read his scenes, many of which could have been lifted directly from Snowball's blog. (Except, of course, she doesn't work in a secure government facility dedicated to studying an extraterrestrial in its native habitat.)
  • Today I had what I refer to as a three-hour salad. I call it that, because it's so huge that that is the minimum amount of time it takes to consume it. (I go off my super low-fat diet every ten days or so.) Considering it filled a large mixing bowl, it was quite an ordeal, but I got through it okay.
  • Today is Mardi Gras in Muncie (and some other places, no doubt). Apparently it's really big. There should be about 11,000 people there, and it's only a few blocks away from my house. I find it strange I haven't yet heard so much as a peep coming from that direction. Local churchgoers want to shut it down. I'll be heading over there is a few hours to do my part. If even a single booby is released in my vicinity, I will rush over and cover it with my hands to protect people from the offensive sight.

February 26, 2006 at 01:33 AM in Books, Food & Drink, Muncie, Indiana | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Happy New Year!

As I did last year and the year before, I've published in the left sidebar a list of all the books I read (or listened to) in the previous year (2005). I'm not sure all of those even count as books.

January 03, 2006 at 12:39 AM in Books | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Books of 2004

I'm so glad yesterday's Mexico entry was such a hit. I'll post an entry about Belize in the next couple of days.

In the meantime, I've put up a booklist in the left margen of everything I read and listened to last year. It's mostly in reverse chronological order. I did this at the beginning of last year as well with my 2003 booklist.

January 22, 2005 at 05:59 AM in Books | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

The Topic That Wouldn't Die

Just so I can keep track of everything, I've created a very simple page to keep track of the proposed book contributions as they are submitted/suggested. I'll update it regularly as things are added and changed. For now, it's an extremely rough draft. Here are my thoughts so far.

Snowball definitely needs a third entry. Her blog is enormous and chock full of good stuff. Can anyone think of another good Snowball classic to add to the list?

Bakerina also needs more suggestions. It's so hard to choose, though, because every one of her entries is of uniformly high quality. I'm thinking that at least one entry should contain a recipe. Any suggestions?

Will (Youngest of One) is on top of it and has already submitted his three preferred posts. What does everyone think of them? Personally, I'd like to see him choose one of his entries about starting high school. And I really like this one, but I doubt his family would let that go into print.

Under "Other Contributors" I've listed bloggers who want to take part but don't yet have suggested material. Notice that I am on that list, since I still don't know what I should contribute. Any ideas?

December 02, 2004 at 04:54 AM in Blogs, Books | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

It Never Ends

Tomorrow is MP3 Tuesday, so that should put a stop (at least temporarily) to my constant entries on the book project. In the meantime, since it's still Monday, I guess I can get away with talking about it for the fourth consecutive day.

I'm really excited that schmed has responded and shown interest in participating with his The Legend of Chunderpuss post. (Any entry that begins with "It was a dak and stormy night" is sure to be a classic.) I was thinking that the photo from The Passing of Chunderpuss would be good as one of the cover images.

What's really great about schmed's participation is that he is quite possibly the only conservative reader I have ever had. It would be kind of silly if every single entry in the book ended up being written by someone on the left. So with that in mind, I was thinking he could maybe also contribute this post, which, although horrifying (from my perspective), is well-written and sincere. And here's an image that goes with it that could also be slapped on the cover. (I'll be sure to make it very small.)

For Snowball, I like two posts in particular: this one and this one. They were written years apart and really underscore just how much X has changed and grown as a person.

Julijul is also taking part. I haven't had time to thoroughly read everything in her blog. I thought 9 Years ago was a possibility. It's an interesting concept, publishing a journal entry from years ago for all the world to see. It is also quite personal. And I laughed out loud when I read You'd think I'd learn by now, which may very well be the most trivial blog entry I have ever encountered.

I'm still anxiously awaiting word from Bill, Receptionista, Jenny, Vicki, Snozzle, Alica and Essay as to whether or not they want to participate. I suppose I should start e-mailing people.

Once again, the posts I've mentioned are suggestions. I'm just drawing attention to what's out there and saying what I think should be included, but I definitely don't reserve any authority to have the final say on what posts or what blogs end up being represented. What I'd love is for other people to start making suggestions.

November 30, 2004 at 03:14 AM in Blogs, Books | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)

Let's Talk Some More about the Book

This is day three of me going on about the book project. I figure the best way to emphasize something on a blog is to write about it on consecutive days. But also, this is something that really excites me constantly inspires me with more thoughts and observations.

Today, for example, I was reflecting on how not all excellent blog entries would actually be suitable to the book format. Posts that draw heavily on images and links to provide a context would lose a lot of meaning in the conversion from hypertext to print. This is a shame, since it eliminates many otherwise excellent pieces of writing.

This is especially true for a blog like Mulubinba Moments, which tends to work at a highly visual level and uses many links. I spent the afternoon scouring it for good book material, and even with the plethora of amazing posts, there just wasn't much that looked like it could survive forced removal from its native online habitat. I did find this, however.

It will be possible to include images in the book, but they will be in black and white and limited to the page size of a small paperback book. There is also the cover. That will be in full color. I'm thinking of filling it (front and back) with images relating to the printed entries. These would be pictures taken from the actual blogs. They would appear unlabeled on the cover and would only become meaningful to the reader after reading the associated entries.

I'm thrilled by the people who have already agreed to take part. So far, they are Will, Bakerina, Tim, Snowball and I (note my super-correct usage of the predicate nominative). I'm hoping many more contributors volunteer over the next few days. Once again, any blogger is welcome to participate, even if they happen to be visiting this site for the very first time.

Also, please feel free to recommend posts from other people's blogs. I really have no idea what to contribute from mine, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, does anyone have an idea for a title? Perhaps it could be something like "Blog Rapture: the greatest posts ever written". Hmmm . . . Maybe not.

November 29, 2004 at 05:59 AM in Blogs, Books | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

More on the Book

Since yesterday's entry, I've become even more enthusiastic about this idea of publishing an anthology of masterfully written blog entries. I really hope there is enough interest out there to make this happen. So far, Will and Bakerina have responded, saying they're in. With me, that makes three contributors. I'm hoping for at least twenty. If each person contributes two or three entries, we could then have a book containing fifty blogging masterpieces!

I'd like to emphasize once again that this is open to any blogger who wants to contribute. The links I supplied yesterday were merely examples off the top of my head of excellent posts that I happened to remember. I reserve absolutely no right whatsoever to have any final say on what gets contributed or who can participate. (I am however, prepared to do a great deal of begging on behalf of entries that I feel are such incredible masterpieces that leaving them out would be a crime against humanity.)

What I hope is that most of the entries that end up being submitted are the result of bloggers recommending the work of fellow bloggers. It seems to be really hard for people to judge their own work. Most of the truly great posts contain at least one apology from the author for the low quality of the writing. Orionoir, who may very well be the greatest writer in all of blogdom, recently deleted all his previous entries (representing over a year of work), because he was unhappy with what he had written. I personally have no idea what to submit, so I hope people can suggest entries from my own work.

Bren suggested that I go with lulu.com rather than CafePress, and I'm convinced. Lulu.com would allow us to sell our book at an even cheaper price (less than $10 for a 200 page paperback), yet with all the same advantages of CafePress. Additionally, for $150 we can be assigned an ISBN number, which would allow our book to be sold on Amazon.com. (I'm willing to pay this out of pocket.) That way, we can actually link from our blogs to the Amazon page for our book. How cool is that?

I'm hoping that we can get the book published in January of 2005 and then follow it up with a new book every January. We can have "2005" and "Volume I" printed on the spine, and in a decade we'll be able to line up a full ten volumes on our bookshelves.

As to how it should be organized, I see the book as being a compilation of fifty masterpieces from about twenty contributors. They would be in fairly random order with no two entries from the same author running consecutively. Each entry would include its title and the name or pseudonym of the writer. It would be one of those books like "Chicken Soup for the Soul" that can be read bit-by-bit. The book would start with an introduction, explaining the format and describing what a blog is. At the end would be an "About the Authors" section with a paragraph on each writer including the URL of their blog and the date that each entry was published. The cover would have various images relating to the posts and blogs featured, such as Will's drawing of the angry sugar bowl and the photo of Chunderpuss. Does anyone have a suggestion for a title?

So, who else wants to contribute?

November 28, 2004 at 05:59 AM in Blogs, Books | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

Yet Another One of My Bright Ideas

Okay, here's my latest idea. This one goes a little beyond memes, but I think it could really be worthwhile if enough people choose to participate.

With all the phenomenal writing that has appeared on our various blogs over the past several months, wouldn't it be cool for us to get together and publish a physical anthology of our greatest posts? I checked out various self-publishing companies online. Surprisingly, CafePress turned out to be the best option, since it would allow us to publish the book for free.

The way I envision it is that several of us agree to participate and have a couple of their entries published in the anthology. Since most people (myself included) find it hard to evaluate their own work, we can make suggestions as to what the best entries of our fellow bloggers are and urge them to choose those. That should make for some interesting debates.

The final product would be a paperback, containing hopefully as many as fifty entries in no particular order. Each entry would identify the name (or pseudonym) of the author and the URL of her/his blog. We'd make a nice cover using combined artwork from various blogs, and there would be an introduction at the beginning explaining what the book was.

I don't really see this catching on and becoming profitable. Cafepress lets its merchants specify how much above the base price they want to charge as profit for themselves. My feeling is that there should be no added cost. This makes it cheaper for everyone and avoids the difficulties associated with distributing minute portions of already tiny profits among several people.

In the unlikely event that our œuvre actually becomes popular with the reading public, we can always up the price later or even issue a second revised edition with extra features. Heck, we could even republish it with iUniverse, so people could buy it on Amazon. But I'd just be happy for the book to exist, even if were only purchased by a handful of people. This is something we could do every year.

And it should go without saying that no one's material would ever be included or altered without their permission, and anyone can withdraw at any time (before publication).

So what say you? Is this a cool idea that should be pursued? The plan outlined above is just a rough idea of how we might do it, so if anyone has better ideas or thoughts on the process, we can certainly make changes. The core concept is that there is a lot of phenomenal writing out there in people's blogs that is more than good enough for print and that deserves to be recorded and recognized before it quickly fades away into the forgotten archives and then the ether at the end of the blog's life.

Participation in the book can be as simple or involved as you want. You can do as little as agreeing to let a couple of your entries be published to submitting suggestions for blogs entries and helping with the writing of the introduction and design of the cover, perhaps even administrating the CafePress account yourself.

Just to give you an idea, here is a handful of examples off the top of my head of posts that I think are truly bookworthy:

  • cosmo girl!
  • The Color Of Intimidation
  • In the Hot Seat
  • Sigh
  • Homesick
  • The Legend of Chunderpuss

November 27, 2004 at 01:18 AM in Blogs, Books | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack (1)

Young Society Matrons

Matrons
In my language teaching course, the prof was showing us transparencies of old teaching materials. This is a page from a very old Spanish language textbook. I thought the caption under the photo was particulary interesting. Unfortunately, all of the matrons' faces are off-screen.

October 30, 2004 at 01:53 AM in Books, Culture, Language, New Photos | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

I, Robot

I haven't been going to the movies much lately, but I made a special point of seeing "I Robot" a couple days ago. After reading mg's thoughts on it before the release and seeing the trailer, I wasn't optimistic, but I was certainly intrigued. It can be entertaining to see how Hollywood and the television industry often take something with the potential to be great and completely destroy and/or make it unrecognizable. (For a really good time, try reading Heinlein's Starship Troopers and then seeing the movie.) As it turns out, I Robot the movie wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared/hoped.

As stated in the credits, the movie is "suggested" by a book of short stories of the same name by Isaac Asimov. Much like Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, "I Robot" is a compilation of stories on a similar theme, not all of which are directly interrelated. As such, it could be explored and retold by Hollywood in virtually limitless ways.

This is not the first I Robot inspired movie. Remember Bicentennial Man. That was based on a specific story in the book and influenced by themes from some of the others. The Outer Limits also did two television adaptations, one from the old series and one from the new series. Both featured Leonard Nimoy as a guest star. Doubtless there have been other "I, Robot" adaptations, but these are the only ones I know.

As I said above, I thought the movie did an adequate job of faithfully capturing something of the essence of the book and its ideas. It is unfortunate that the trailers do not reflect that. Despite the fact that it was made into an action flick starring Wil Smith, who spends quite a bit of time with guns blazing blasting hordes of attacking malevolent robots (something which never occurs in any of Asimov's stories), I thought it did a good job of articulating at least one of the central ideas of the book.

This is the dilemma: Society reaches a point where powerful anthropomorphic robots can easily and inexpensively be mass-produced. Because these robots are physically as capable, and in some respects superior, to humans, they make the ultimate servant class, and society becomes increasingly dependent on them to maintain itself. But robots are not people. They have no inherent sense of morality and cannot be held accountable in any meaningful way for their actions. With millions of robots all around having a fair degree of autonomy, what is to prevent them from harming us humans? How do you keep them from being used for criminal activity by other humans (perhaps as bank robbers or assassins)? And what about the occasional error in judgement that could cause them to hurt people? For example, suppose that a robot babysitter unable to get little Johnny into bed decides that the best course of action available to it is to physically render him unconscious.

One answer is to give them rules, hardwired into their postitronic brains. They need to be simple enough so that they will be applied in predictable ways in the complex outside world, and they need to be stated in straightforward human language, so people understand them and can feel reassured by seeing that they are observed. It's unfortunate that the movie dedicated no time to exploring the circumstances that led to the gradual process of implementation and modification of the rules over time which was so much a part of the book. Instead, the movie begins with the three rules fully articulated and implemented with no exploration of why they are formulated in exactly that way.

In any event, although the rules prove essential for the continued functioning of a society hugely dependent on robots, the fact still remains that robots are not people. Giving a complex digital brain analog rules to adhere to in the even more complex world of human society will have unpredictable results. That is a given. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say that the robot incident in the past of Wil Smith's character illustrates this fact very clearly. The robot had to make a choice, and although it did not do anything that would get it condemned in a court of law (were it human), it nevertheless did not make the choice that most humans would consider the right one.

Now here are the things that could have improved the movie:

--Wil Smith is the only person in the entire world to be suspicious of robots? That seems a tad farfetched.

--Leonard Nimoy should have been given a rôle, since he has been in both of the Outer Limits adaptations. He could have played the hologram of the murdered scientist. That would have worked well for him.

--There was way too much CGI. The robots seemed much more organic than robotic.

--Wil Smith should have had a clever "I told you so" moment at the end with the police chief.

--The robots (other than Sonny) should have been developed much more as characters. There was almost no sense of what regular everyday robots are really like as individuals.

--Once again not wanting to give away anything, I'll just say that the villain, although unexpected, was not an idea that worked well.

--That whole thing with the wink was overly predictable. I knew from the beginning that Sonny would eventually wink at Wil at some critical moment later in the film, and I spotted the moment well before the wink occurred.

--I was a bit confused by the ending. Are the robots going to form a new independent society? How does that follow from the rest of the movie?

--I was a bit put off by the scientists daughter who goes through the entire movie constantly on the verge of tears but never actually crying.

There were also a few minor details that I liked:

--Wil Smith was not automatically paired with a black female lead, which is what usually happens in American movies.

--The phrase "ass spankin' hot" was a new one. Perhaps receptionista's tea towel lingo is destined to make inroads in the robot infested future. There is also a cat in the movie who seems to be there for absolutely no reason, but he looks and acts much as I imagine Parsons does.

--Much of the dialogue was well-written and well-delivered. That surprised me.

Roger Ebert notwithstanding, I'll give the movie a thumb up.

August 03, 2004 at 05:57 PM in Books | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

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