Friday, November 24, 2006

Also known as lazy blogging

I took another quiz, on what Tarot card I am:




You are The Moon



Hope, expectation, Bright promises.



The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.



The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.



What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Is it just me, or does it sound like if I take drugs or alcohol, I will cause irereparable damage to the drugs and alcohol? Maybe the "them" is my past mental problems; I wouldn't want to damage those.

I also have a list of the 50 Most Significant SFF books (1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club). I'm supposed to bold what I've read, strike-through anything I hated, italicize anything I've started but never finished, and asterisk anything I loved. So here we go:


1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien.*** I've read this book at least every five years since I first read it at 14. I don't know if I'll keep that up in my 90s, but it's been about five years and I've been hankering to dig into it again.
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov. But in all honest, I liked his robot series with Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw better. I know, I'm a heretic.
3. Dune, Frank Herbert. I've even managed to stay awake through the movie version once!
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein.*** 4 times. I keep intending to read all of Heinlein's books, and I keep getting sidetracked reading this one over and over again. My husband's cat is named Valentine after Valentine Michael Smith.
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin.*** I would love to see a Peter Jackson version of this. I didn't bother with the Sci-Fi channel disaster.
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson.*** 4 times on this one as well. Our second cat is named Molly, which is a shared reference to the Molly in this book and Molly Bloom from Ulysses. (The third cat is Spike, a shared reference to Cowboy Bebop and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is totally not literary. I should be ashamed).
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke. Eep. Actually, I have a list of authors whose work I plan to dive into next, and his name is on it. Honest, I fully intend to read this.
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick. And this too. I actually already own this, I've just never read it.
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley***. When I first read it, it absolutely blew me away. The sequels haven't come close to Mists, but frankly that bar may be set too high. This book is brilliant.
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe. Wolfe is also on that list. I've read a lot of his short fiction and a couple of his novels, but not this one.
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr. I've read this at least twice. The first time was when I was in junior high; I'm fairly certain this was the first straight-up sci-fi I ever read (although I was a fiend for sci-fi movies, even the crappy ones).
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov. Oh there you are, Caves of Steel.
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett. Pratchett's name is on the list (I'm telling you, it's a mighty long list. I started with the women writers, most of whom don't even appear on this list. I'll get to the list-making men someday).
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison . No, but this one is on my list for Christmas (a large portion of my gifts received are in bookstore gift certificates, so I start making my lists now. I don't want until Dec. 26 to spend those gift certificates!).
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison.
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester. Another one I own but have not yet read.
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card. Italics for this one, although I still intend to finish it someday.
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling.*** It's probably best if I don't tell you how many times I've read this one. Everytime a new one is coming out, I re-read all the previous ones back-to-back. I read them all again everytime a movie is coming out. Since this is the first book in the series, I'll let you do the math.
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.*** Second after Canticle in my sci-fi reading. I was quite popular in junior high for being the only girl anyone knew who'd read this and could quote it like it was Python (I was going to say "Shakespeare", but I'm pretty sure I was the only one also quoting Shakespeare) (also, the word "popular" here refers to a very restricted social circle. I was popular with the geeks).
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice.*** 3 or 4 times with that one as well. To be honest, I like her Mayfair Witches books better. (yeah, heretic again).
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin.**** Quite possibly my favorite LeGuin, and that's saying something. Love is not strong enough a word.
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke. Yes, I'm ashamed not to have read this one. It's on the list!
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven. I own this but haven't read it yet. I've read 6 other Niven books, though.
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien. I don't know anyone who's finished this. How did it make the list and no The Hobbit?
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester. Another one I own but haven't read yet.
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein. 3 times. I could get a lot more reading done if I could stop reading the same books over and over, eh?

47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock. Own it, haven't read it.
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks. I've never seen the appeal. Dragonlance gets sneered at, but those books are nowhere near as badly written as the Shannara books. Sometimes I just don't understand human behavior.
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

16 out of 50, plus 3 I've never finished. Better hit the books!


Monday, November 20, 2006

My Very First Sale!

My short story "Seagull and Raven" was just bought by Allegory e-zine! This ends it reign as my most rejected story; that title now passes down to "Cold Water Drowning". This is a particularly exciting first sale, as "Seagull and Raven" is part of the backstory for the novel in progress, Tao of Troth. Nah, really it's just exciting because someone bought something I wrote! It will be up on the Allegory site in January 2007; I'll post again when it's live so you can all check it out and recommended it to all your friends (wink wink, nudge nudge).

Friday, November 17, 2006

Oh how I love this record


As some among you may know, I adore Cat Stevens. I've loved his music since I saw the movie Harold and Maude way back in high school (I of course knew "Peace Train" before that, but to be honest, that's not in my top 10 Cat tracks). I loved the songs in that movie and had to hear more. Sadly, my entire Cat collection was on LP and I no longer have a turntable (or even the records, actually; there is no room in this house to store stuff. I'd kill for a house with an attic). But a few years back my husband got the Cat Stevens boxed set for me for Christmas, and that has almost all of the good stuff on it. (and "Peace Train").
So anyway, Cat, who is now Yusuf Islam, has a new record out this week. It took me a while to find it on itunes, as he is going just by "Yusuf" for this one, and the sucky itunes search engine didn't realize that this record could in any way be what someone typing the keywords "Yusuf Islam" or "Cat Stevens" might be looking for. I presume the one name thing isn't a bid at Prince or Madonna hipness, and I sincerely hope it's not a political thing. I imagine it has to do with why he hasn't done any new music until now: he wants to separate the spiritual and secular sides of his life, and this record is meant to be secular.
I say "meant to be" not because it's secretly meant to proselytze you. Cat is like George Harrison; his spiritual journey is too much of who he is for that not be what the music is really all about. (See: it's about the journey, not the destination. If it were about the destination, that would be proselytzing).
Now I liked his single from a few years back "Indian Ocean", but I was doubtful whether a whole new record would manage to strike a chord with me. It's been decades since he's recorded, it might have sucked. Happily, it doesn't. It's not quite Tea for the Tillerman, but it can stand next to it without shame. And he still has the most amazing voice. I've only had this record for a couple of days, but I can already tell I'm going to be playing this one a lot. If you like Cat, definitely pick this one up.
(You know, I just can't bring myself to call these things "CDs". I don't know why. It just doesn't seem to encapsulate the creative product like "record" does. Maybe it's like with writing. I don't think of myself as writing a "book", I'm writing a "novel". I dunno, just a ponder.)

What Buffy character am I?

I thought for sure I'd be Andrew, as no one ever remembers my name, but as it turns out I'm....

(And no, there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about these great huge spaces and empty lines. I've tried, but I can't fix it. If only I actually knew something about HTML!)




Tara Maclay
45% amorality, 36% passion, 63% spirituality, 63% selflessness











What a woman! (Or man, as it may be...)

Tara is a moral, centered, spiritual and selfless person... rather, I suspect, like you. People like this make those around them love them.

Congratulations! (and stay away from windows, just in case)
THE 4-VARIABLE BUFFY PERSONALITY TEST

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Cautiously optimistic

That pretty much sums up my feelings for the Timberwolves this year. I like how the Boston boys have been playing. Ricky Davis exemplifies team spirit - is there a player who's less selfish with the ball? - and Mark Blount has turned out to be the polar opposite of Olowakandi. He's much better than we were told he would be when that trade went down, and I'm very pleased with his blocking, rebounding, and scoring (although being such a tall fellow he can't run and dribble at the same time. My husband keeps insisting that Kevin Garnett is a freak in his ability to do this at his height. I guess it's true). Our first round draft pick Randy Foye seems like a slow starter, but he did manage to nail a few last night. He'll be worth the effort if Casey gives him the time to develop, I think. But I'm blown away by Craig Smith, our other rookie who plays like an NBA veteran. 20 points against Denver? Didn't see that one coming.

Team-wide, turnovers are still a problem, and I don't think Marko Jaric has quite found his place yet. It's better since he knows he's not a point guard now, but I think he's still trying to find his niche. He's mean on the steal, though. I'm liking Mike James as our point guard; I'm so glad they scared up some veterans to complement Kevin Garnett. This is a team built around KG, and if they can't make it happen for him I'm afraid MN is going to have to let KG go. He wants that ring, man, and who can blame him?

But my fave to watch is still Troy Hudson (when he's not hurt). Yes, he takes a while to prime up. You have to let him biff a bunch of big shots, but just when you're ready to tear your hair out, he'll start nailing 3-pointers. And nailing them. And nailing them. Plus, I like his hair. I liked it better last year when he was doing the pigtail thing. I tried to find a pic, but the internet let me down. I did find this one of T-Hud and Shaq which I find amusing:


On a final basketball note, my heart goes out to Wally Szczerbiak, who's been playing his butt off in Boston, but to no avail. 33 points he scored last night - 33 points! - and they still lost. That's gotta suck.