Many months ago, I voiced my opinions on free-verse poetry and complained how it appears more and more like places in THE NEW YORKER and ASIMOV’S SCIENCE FICTION. I like poety hemmed in by rules, rhyme, meter, scansion, and the like. While eating breakfast this morning, I read through the 7 poems in the October/November…
I was all excited to watch the Yankees/Red Sox game tonight and it has been rained out! So there will be a double header tomorrow and on Sunday! So now what am I going to do? I think I’m going to watch Groundhog Day and then finish up reading Brainiac.
I receieved the October 2006 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN in the mail today and while skimming through it, I came across a short review for a new book by Carl Sagan (who died nearly 10 years ago). Edited by his widow, Ann Druyan, the name of the book is The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A…
I signed up for the writer’s group just in the nick of time. This afternoon I received my second rejection slip from F&SF in the last 8 days. This time it was for the short-short “Blind Date”. The wording of the rejection was only slightly different than that of “Graveyard Shift”. Instead of “this tale…
I have finally bitten the bullet and joined a writer’s workshop. I researched it a bit and then finally decided to join Critters because it came highly recommended, because it focuses on science fiction, fantasy and horror, because the automation makes it easy to submit stories, and finally, because they have very fair rules for…
Since there was an unintentional pun in the post about my roof last night, I figured I make it more intentional in this follow-up. I was up at 5:50 AM and into work by 6:50, as usual. As soon as I got into the office and glanced at my email, I called Mike the Roof…
Nine years ago today, on September 15, 1997, I ordered my first cell phone. I ordered it through AirTouch (which I don’t think exists any longer). I ordered their “Cal 30” plan, which cost $20/month for the first 3 months and $30/month thereafter. We could make free phone calls to our home phone number and…
While talking on the phone with jen_ashlock, I noticed that there was a “stain” on the ceiling above my door and that the paint appeared to be peeling more than usual. The ceiling is soft so I imagine there is water in there from the recent rains, but the carpet is dry and the wall…
I am two-thirds of the way through Ken Jenning’s book, Brainiac and not only is it good, but it has changed my opinion of trivia, something which I will elaborate on more in a later post (once I’m done reading the book). One of the chapters is on fascinating magazine that’s been around since 2000…
This was a morning workout and I was up at 4:30 AM in order to eat and be into the gym by 6 AM. I tend to be a morning person, but even for me 4:30 AM is tough. It means that I have to be in bed by about 9 PM and shut out…