| Department of non-think |
[Feb. 6th, 2010|10:34 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
On the TV I've seen adverts for a cell phone called the Eris. The goddess of Chaos is not what I want in a communications device. Do you think the namers of the phone knew what the name means? |
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| Football Madness |
[Feb. 6th, 2010|01:31 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
On y va, Saints!
(Not that I think they'll win, but one never knows.) |
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| Snort! |
[Feb. 3rd, 2010|09:19 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
http://www.dailykos.com/ has TV clips of Rush Limbaugh etc attacking the results of the poll -- an independent poll, I should say, from a national polling organization -- of "self-identified Republican voters."
Some non-surprising results:
21 percent believe the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) stole the 2008 election and 55 percent aren't sure.
31 percent believe Obama is a racist who hates white people and 33 percent aren't sure.
23 percent want their state to secede from the U.S. and 19 percent aren't sure.
Only 26 percent favor letting openly gay Americans serve in the military.
67 percent believe the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ.
Remember: the Kos itself did not do this poll. It used a neutral organization that's known for being reliable (and whose name I've forgotten at the moment, but it's doubtless on the site somewhere.) But the Republicans are furious and trying to attack the results, because they don't want to admit how many outright nutters support them.
Heh, say I. The can of worms has been opened. |
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| How different are things now? |
[Feb. 2nd, 2010|08:14 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
I have been thinking about the idea of "feminist theory", an academic term, certainly, mostly because I am really tired of condescending articles in the TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT by Neo-feminists. The TLS is of course quite Tory, though they do publish a fair number of reviews by women, not all of whom are Neo-Feminists.
The N-Fs, also known in the States as Post-Feminists (or Post-Toasties as Susan Shwartz so accurately names them)insist that the body of work they call "grievance feminism" is old fashioned, passe', unsophisticated, and most definitely "no longer needed because things have changed."
( discussion below this cut ) |
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| Regrets? |
[Jan. 31st, 2010|11:07 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
"But don't you regret not having children?" I used to get asked this a lot by women of my mother's generation. Occasionally now I even get asked it by younger women. The answer? At one point in my life I did regret it, but I got over it. :-) I always knew that I wanted to be a writer, and I knew myself well enough back then to realize that I, personally, could not do a good job at either motherhood or writing if I had to do them both. Notice the "I, personally". I'm not saying that anyone else should make the same decision.
This reflection arises from an interesting discussion in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) girliejones's LJ, which I have cluttered up enough with my thoughts and thus decided to post them here. Inevitably in any discussion of feminism, the talk does turn to issues of housework and children. THE SECOND SHIFT by Arlie Hothschild (I may be spelling her last name wrong) is a good book on the subject, replete with statistics. Even today, with all the gains women have made since the 1960s, women still do most of the childcare and housework -even when- they have a fulltime job outside the home.
When they have a job inside the home, as I do, too many people see this as "you have no excuse if your home and yard aren't clean and lovely." Some years ago, I actually had a woman my own age tell me that I should do housework first and then write "in my free time." After all, she thought I had lots of such time since I didn't have kids. I am no longer friends with this person. :-)
Her attitude and that of the older women who really couldn't believe that a female human didn't want kids are good examples of "cultural bias", something a lot less blatant than outright discrimination -- but it binds women's souls all the same. |
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| A dumb question |
[Jan. 30th, 2010|10:22 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | confused | ] |
Can you resell ebooks as used books when you're done with them? |
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| Profound annoyance |
[Jan. 29th, 2010|10:35 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
Wretched ESPN is doing it again with the finals of the Australian Open, that is, they are not replaying the two biggest matches of the tournament at anything like a reasonable time. On the West Coast, the live match of Serena and Justine Henin starts at 12.30 am. They'll play the tape at 5 am.
The men's final, of course, gets a little better treatment: replay at 8 am.
What is so much more important in the minds of these dorks? College basketball.
Gods! |
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| I did it |
[Jan. 28th, 2010|01:20 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | cranky | ] |
Opted out of the Google Settlement, that is. I'd been waffling, but Ursula Le Guin's arguments convinced me as did the judge's decision that forced Google to make opting out easy instead of hours of work. If they want to use my copyrighted material, then they can damn well ask me, not expect me to fill out some wretched spreadsheet to protect my inherent rights of ownership.
Unlike Ursula, however, I am staying in the Authors Guild. Yes, they are a New York City centered bunch who absolutely blew the Settlement Agreement, but they have also done a -lot-of good things for authors over the years and are still doing other good things that don't get the publicity that dropping the Google ball did.
They should have thrown the muddy ball back into Google's face, but fortunately others, including the French government, have done that.
We shall see how it all works out on Feb. 18th. |
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| Quick notes |
[Jan. 27th, 2010|03:23 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
So Apple's called the new device an iPad. Am I the only woman here who went 'snerk' at that name?
I saw an advertisement, nothing else, for this book, but it made me think several people here, for example sartorias and al zorra, might want to know about it:
BECOMING A WOMAN OF LETTERS by Linda H. Peterson, Princeton UP, a study of how 19th century women writers "positioned themselves in the emerging profession of authorship."
I was up very late for me last night, watching Federer's incredible comeback against Dayvedanko. One might say that it was D's funk, not F's win, but when a top player digs deep like F did, the funk on the other side "just happens". I was minded of the 49ers and Joe Montana in the second Superbowl against the Bengals, when Montana dug deep and led the team down the field against a defense that had held all game -- but suddenly couldn't play worth beans . . .
Authors have to do that with their careers sometimes, I suspect. I'm about to see if I can. :-)
ETA: And Serena had another "fight like a champion" match, too. Of course, she -is- a champion! |
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| The passive voice (yet again) |
[Jan. 26th, 2010|02:41 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | thoughtful | ] |
As regular readers of this space know, I have a thing against the using the passive voice in pieces of writing in all but a very few circumstances. (Such as "Smoking is not permitted beyond this point." would one example of sure, okay.) Most people who teach creative writing or simply good writing in American English do, too, Strunk and White, for instance. (British English tends to allow more passive voice than American.) The usual reasons given to avoid it are true enough: it sounds weak, it distances the action of the verb, it makes it hard to see who's responsible for the action, etc. American English favors the vivid over the judicious, as a cultural trait.
But lately I have been wondering why, linguistically speaking, the reasons are true. It dawned on me today that indeed, there is a linguistic explanation. Let us consider that ancient and staple example:
1. The dog bit the man.
2. The man was bitten by the dog.
The second of course is the passive voice. In grammar we say that in Sentence 1 the dog is the subject and in sentence 2 the man is the subject. In grammar, the subject of the sentence is usual the Doer of the Action, whilst in the passive voice, the subject is that which gets something done to it.
Now what about the semantics? Technical terms follow: In both sentences the dog is the Agent and the man is the Patient, that is, the dog is the Doer and the man the Recipient of the action. (Patient has nothing to do with the man's trip to the ER for the dogbite; it's just the not-very-good word choice of linguists. In the sentence "the cart was pulled by a horse," the cart is also the Patient.)
Now, to American ears at least, sentences sound snappiest when the Subject and the Agent are one and the same. They are easier to understand, they feel 'immediate' that way. Placing the Patient in the subject position confuses the issue. Hence, our informal rule: for strong, effective writing, avoid the passive voice. (If you're an American. The British see this differently, or so it seems to me.) |
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| Football |
[Jan. 24th, 2010|10:12 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  glassy-eyed | ] |
I watched both football games straight through, with cuts to tennis during the commercials and half-time blathering. My mind is numb, along with other portions of my anatomy.
I predicted that the Super Bowl teams would be the Saints and the Chargers. Well, I got it half-right. I figured the Chargers could beat the Colts, but I had no idea that the Jets could beat the Chargers! |
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| Happy birthday! |
[Jan. 23rd, 2010|05:37 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  celebratory | ] |
To iisaw! |
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| Pollertix |
[Jan. 22nd, 2010|10:39 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  sad | ] |
I suspect that everyone here can guess that I despise the Bush-whacked Supreme Court's decision allowing corporations to buy elections, but just in case there were any doubts, yes, I despise it. America has taken another big step toward fascism, a system where corporate business interests and the military control the political process in the name of various fancy-sounding ideals.
Sinclair Lewis once remarked that if Fascism ever took hold in the United States, it would arrive wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. Prophetic fellow . . . |
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| Really shameless of me |
[Jan. 22nd, 2010|02:43 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
A member of the Deverry listserve posted this there this morning.
"Kit's Silver Mage is up for this award. If you join the group at gemmellaward.com (or search for Gemmell Legend Award) you can vote for it. "
I suppose I should go post this on the 2 Facebook pages but that would be too shameless even for me. I am surprised at how the idea of blatant promotion bothers me, even though I know authors need to do it these days.
In other news: we're having breaks from the constant rain today. I'm really glad of it. Howard is getting better, and I'm almost back to normal. Flavia is still disgusted by the weather, however, and refuses to sit on her usual cushion by the window despite the occasional burst of sunlight. |
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| The rain it raineth |
[Jan. 20th, 2010|12:58 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  exanimate | ] |
H. and I are feeling much better, though I'm farther along toward health than he, because I got it first.
The storms here have been heavy but very fast-moving. Most of the leak stoppage repairs that Howard did last year at this time have held, but the one really bad leak has re-appeared. I've got to save up enough cash to get a professional in to deal with it, but considering the state of publishing and my finances, alas joined irrevocably, it won't be for a while.
We've had lots of thunder and lightning, rare usually around here. The poor cat is freaked but does get much lap and cuddle time, which helps.
We've been watching the Australian Open tennis a fair bit. Alas, the ESPN idea of coverage includes too many announcers talking too much when they could be showing actual games, not "featurettes". |
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| Foo |
[Jan. 18th, 2010|03:38 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | sick | ] |
I'm still sick, Howard is sicker, it's raining and storming, and like that. |
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| Shameless self-promotion |
[Jan. 14th, 2010|04:25 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | creative | ] |
Love, death and war...
The Morrigan goddess represented all three to the ancient Celts. Journey with our authors as they tell stories of love, war, hatred, revenge and mortality - each featuring the Morrigan in her many guises.
Re-visit the world of Deverry, and of Nevyn, with a previously unpublished tale by Katharine Kerr, watch the Norse gods meet their Celtic counterparts with Elaine Cunningham, meet a druid who dances for the dead with C.E. Murphy and follow the path of a Roman centurion with Anya Bast.
These are but a few offerings from the stories collection in The Phantom Queen Awakes. If you are searching for a rich blend of dark fantasy, then this is a collection perfect for you.
The Phantom Queen Awakes stories:
Rising Tide: Ruth Shelton
Kiss of the Morrigan: Anya Bast
I Guard Your Death: Lynne Lumsden Green
Gifts of the Morrigan: Donald Jacob Uitvlugt
Cairn Dancer: C. E. Murphy
Washerwoman: Jennifer Lawrence
The Raven’s Curse: Sharon Kae Reamer
Ravens: Mari Ness
The Lass from Far Away: Katharine Kerr
The Trinket: Peter Bell
The Dying Gaul: Michael Bailey
The Children of Badb Catha: James Lecky
The Plain of Pillars: L. J. Hayward
The Silver Branch: Linda Donahue
The Good and Faithful Servant: Martyn Taylor
The White Heifer of Fearchair: T. A. Moore
She Who is Becoming: Elaine Cunningham
N.B.: The Phantom Queen Awakes will be released 14th February 2010 in the US.
UK, Australian and European release dates to follow.
US: $20 + shipping
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| Sometimes I can't believe it |
[Jan. 14th, 2010|04:21 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  stunned | ] |
In this case, I can't believe that Pat Robertson is dribbling on and on about the Haitian people having made "a pact with the Devil" which brought the earthquake down upon them. Isn't it time that his family put him in to a locked ward at the proper kind of home?
As for Limbaugh and his racist bullcrap, what does expect from a pig but a grunt, as my grandmother's best friend, Phoebe Radley, used to say? Surely those high-minded Republicans who thought Harry Reid should resign are going to come forward and tell Rush to shut his big mouth? Aren't they?
Well, Pat Buchanan did, but he's not precisely a mainstream Republican . . . |
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