So, I see that the shortlist is out now for this year’s Arthur C. Clarke award: Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go Ken MacLeod – Learning the World Alastair Reynolds – Pushing Ice Geoff Ryman – Air Charles Stross – Accelerando Liz Williams – Banner of Souls This one is almost as hard to call as the BSFA list.… Read more →
Month: January 2006
Counting Heads
Yesterday my copy of David Marusek’s Counting Heads arrived. I kind of took a flyer on this–I had heard a few good things around the net, but I didn’t have a positive recommendation from any of my usual sources. Today, I found the Rick Kleffel–who is definitely one of my trusted sources for recommendations–had a decent length review of the… Read more →
People Who Are Awesome: Tom Waits
I’ve mentioned Tom on here before, in praise, in amused wonder, and so on. Tom is top on my list of “people I’d love to just spend a night hanging out with”. Of course the first reason to love Tom is the music. If you know, I don’t need to say more. If you don’t, allow me to point you… Read more →
Best First Lines?
So, Litline (American Book Review) has what they purport to be the 100 Best First Lines from Novels. I don’t know about the 100 Best, but there’s certainly some good ones in there, although I could certainly argue with the order. For example, “He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” should… Read more →
OK, I might be alive…
Feeling much better, although not 100%. I just replaced some light bulb in my office–I have no windows in here, so I try to keep the place extremely well-lit, especially in the winter. For the last couple of years I’ve had four of the 100W-equivalent compact fluourescent bulbs, which are both more energy efficient and a whiter light. However, I’ve… Read more →
Oh, poor poor me
The Head Cold from Hell has really settled in now. It’s funny, because you’d think the head cold was the mildest ailment, and the easiest to get by, but I find that not being able to breathe right makes it impossible for me to sleep. Of course not sleeping is not the best way to get over a cold, so…… Read more →
I do not endorse Wikipedia vandalism.
However, every statement in the first paragraph of this particular revision of the entry is true. Read more →
Loathsome People
I had a good laugh (a “you have to laugh, or go insane” laugh) this morning while reading “The 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2005” over at The BEAST . You should give it a read, and take your own laughs. Here’s two examples from the list: 15. Karl Rove Charges: A greasy pig whose only distinction in life… Read more →
This month’s All-Story magazine…
The current issue of All Story magazine features a “guest designer”. I picked up the magazine, not one of my normal picks, because that guest designer is one of my favourite characters: Mr. Tom Waits. The world is much more interesting place with him in it than it would be without. There’s actually limited material in the magazine for Tom… Read more →
Last election post today
This post brought to you by Laphroaig and Lagavulin. Well, I’m going to get drunk now and really enjoy this funk. Tomorrow I’ll try to focus on the positive things. There actually are some, but they go hand-in-hand with even scarier scenarios. Read more →
Who We Just Made Our Prime Minister…
This post brought to you by bitter, bitter tears. “Mr. Speaker, the issue of war requires moral leadership. We believe the government should stand by our troops, our friends and our allies and do everything necessary to support them right through to victory.” – Stephen Harper, supporting the American invasion of Iraq, House of Commons, April 1, 2003. “In terms… Read more →
Damn
CBC just called it. Damn. I need liquor now. Read more →
Election Beer #3
This post brought to you by Fuller‘s London Porter. So, here’s my perception of the parties at play in this election. Google will bring you all kinds of other perspectives, but here you get the McLaren view ™. Liberals – The least dangerous party to be in power–they’re generally progressive on social policy (most often when Prime Ministers start to… Read more →
Election Beers #1 and #2
This post brought to you by McAuslan St. Ambroise oatmeal stout. OK, all the predictions before the polls started closing (and I can’t legally talk about election results yet, even though I can see some of them now for Atlantic ridings) were that the Conservatives would end the night with a minority government. Before I go into a little Canadian… Read more →
Heading out to vote.
I am on my way out the door to vote in the federal election. My plan for tonight is to sit around watching CBC, and getting really drunk. I hope I don’t end up needing the loving oblivion of the bottle, but if the results go the way I (and the pundits) think they will, there’s no way I’m going… Read more →
