This post is primarily targeted to my pal “Iron” Doug Hern, who is having his 127thThis is an approximate value birthday today. This is a recording of Leonard Cohen doing a reading/performance at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA (yes, that’s the “The Young Men’s-Young Women’s Hebrew Association”) Hotel in New York City, New York on 14 February 1966. It includes Cohen… Read more →
Month: December 2007
Climbing The Walls
I am completely climbing the walls tonight. I’ll explain why, but it will take a second, so either throw a pizza in the oven (hi Neil!) and settle down, or else skip along to the next entry. Read more →
She’s blowing my secret identity
Apparently this conversation (I’m reporting it second-hand, so the quotes might not be exact) occurred on my daughter’s drive in to the day care this morning. Sarah: I don’t want to go to day care today. Trish: It’s just for today and tomorrow and then you get to spend four more days at home. Think of it as a chance… Read more →
Does This Explain Something?
Should you be MALE or FEMALE?*created with QuizFarm.com You scored as Female Being mostly female by thought, a good thing in many ways: By definition it means that you are more creative, and sensitive towards your environment, enabling you to express yourself freely. Female 54% Male 46% Either 39% Neither 32% (via Fred) So, that might mean something… I don’t… Read more →
Things I Did Not Know
The expression “the worm turns”, commonly used (at least by me) to mean “the situation has changed and the previously disadvantaged party now holds the advantage”, is apparently an evolution of the old proverb, “Tread on a worm and it will turn.” The proverb was likely intended to say “even the lowliest creature will strike back when threatened/attacked/mistreated”. This is… Read more →
Perfect Steganography
You know what steganography is, right? “Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the sender and intended recipient even realizes there is a hidden message.” Quite often these days this means encoding information into the insignificant bits of large binary files–changing the colour the pixel at (134,651) from… Read more →
Things I Did Not Know
When she was young, Joan Didion was quite the hottie. Evidence: Read more →
Merry Christmas To All
Here’s wishing a hearty Merry Christmas to everyone who reads Homo Sum. (The image above links to a wall-paper sized version. It’s from here originally.) Read more →
SF Authors Say Smart Things: Peter Watts
Most people acquire their beliefs through osmosis and observation, not investigation. We’d rather observe than derive. Raised in a society awash in certain ubiquitous beliefs, you tend to accept those beliefs without thinking. I think most people come to their faith in the same way they come to believe that not wearing a tie is “unprofessional office behaviour” Another in… Read more →
A miscellany for a Friday
There’s absolutely no theme here, just a bunch of stuff that caught my interest. Why did I not know there was a new Grimjack comic being serialized to the web at ComicMix.com? There’s like 60 pages there already. I hope this is web-to-trade serialization. And look, there’s also a Jon Sable, and what’s this Bar Sinister? The good folks over… Read more →
An ethical question
Who is more ethically advanced: a person who has a larger set of things for which they will kill, or for which they will die? And do you put yourself in the more advanced bucket? I know that the question can be rendered silly by what you put in the sets, but I’m talking in very general terms and I’m… Read more →
El Enigma de Paris
I read this today on one of the messageboards I frequent: I just finished reading a book called ‘El Enigma de Paris‘ (don’t think you guys will have much trouble translating that) by Pablo de Santis. I don’t know if it will ever be translated to English, but if you ever see it at the bookstore, it’s pretty good. The… Read more →
The Sacred Art Of Leaving
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Billy Franks. Boy, those lyrics are sharp. I only had to be cut once to know how to bleed I know why we tend to love most those who know How to leave and Take my hand and let me tell you All but my love will soon be gone And the exit wound will be… Read more →
The Most Beautiful Woman In Town
I don’t know why it isActually, I have some idea, but you won’t catch me admitting it. but in the late part of December every year, I start to feel some sort of compulsion to read some Bukowski. (As an aside, my mental picture of Bukowski doesn’t match any of his photos–it’s Henry Chinaski.) I read different stuff every year–Bukowski… Read more →
It wasn’t me.
Observed in the wild today, on a display table at Scholar’s Choice (yes, I was shopping for Christmas presents for my daughter): I didn’t do it. Although it is exactly the sort of thing I would have done. Read more →
