A quick addendum…
I’ve realised that I’ve never linked to the l5r fanfiction of Moto Maratai (a.k.a. Yoon Ha Lee), which was very remiss of me, since it is also rather good.
I also realise that my previous l5r fanfic linkage took place almost exactly a year ago, since I talk about Here Be Dragons in the same post… and I am in fact departing for Here Be Dragons today. Spooky.
That in turn implies that Simon’s l5r campaign is about a year old. Happy birthday, l5r campaign!
Random book, and the quest for fanfiction
I’ve been sucked into the “sentences 6-8 from page 123 of your nearest book” blog meme by Gnome. I feel so dirty. D:
Technically, the books closest to me are the obsolete computing-related doorstops on which my monitor is standing. I am going to ignore them, and the other doorstops and phonebooks on which Simon’s monitor is standing, because a) lifting the monitors is hard, b) they are boring and c) they aren’t Polish. Here, instead, is an excerpt from Maska (The Mask), a collection of novellas and plays by Stanisław Lem — it was on top of the pile of books next to my bed; bite me.
“Jakże, mówię, Symfonia Bytu też w tym jest!? To warto się przyłożyć! Ale prawda li?”
It’s from a sub-story in a novella (Edukacja Cyfrania; the story of the first frozen person) which was later republished as part of the Cyberiad, but apparently not in the English language version. I haven’t read it since the last time I read the Cyberiad, and I don’t remember it at all, but if the internet and the first page are to be believed it’s about an enormous orchestra run by a musical country in space and is a veiled criticism of the communist government.
I’m not making this up.
I’m only going to tag Hodgestar, because I think everyone else has been tagged. And he can say no if he wants to; no pressure.
In other news, my l5r fanfiction plug from several months ago is on the first page of Google’s search results for “l5r fanfiction” (no quotes). Which is not very helpful when I’m the one looking for the l5r fanfiction. :/
Also, to recap: I played in Mike’s Discworld LARP, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I went to most of SchpatCON, but didn’t LARP because of lingering illness. Adeeb twisted my rubber arm and I bought Vimanarama, which is pretty cool.
Basic chemistry: 1; Confluence: 0
OK. So, the next time I attempt to replicate the traditional native American process of nixtamalization in my kitchen, with ancient, unpoppable popcorn kernels and bicarbonate of soda, I'll be sure not to use an aluminium pot.
Yes, go on, laugh. 
And that's why we're having sauerkraut soup tonight, and not corn soup. I have thrown out the (otherwise admirably nixtamalized) corn; it's entirely possible that whatever aluminium compounds were formed, in copious quantities, by the chemical reaction would not actually have given us worse heavy metal poisoning than a tube of toothpaste and antacids, but I don't want to get Alzheimer's.
The aluminium pot is pockmarked like the surface of the moon. I suppose it can still be used to cook pasta.
I was disturbed by the amount of yellow dye that came out of the popcorn, as well as its extreme and unnatural yellowness. At least I hope that was yellow dye.
Random author
The story which caught my attention was Cinderella Suicide.
Science fiction online…
Webzines ahoy!
* Strange Horizons (Weekly)
* Helix (Quarterly)
* Sci Fiction at Scifi.com (Dead, but the archive's still up)
So far, I have found one new favourite author, A.M. Dellamonica.
Buy someone a cow
Recent Tweets
- @firstfallen I like option 4 too. Option two is also nice, but kind of busy.
- Twitter, you are making me sad in my pants. Fix your damn RSS feeds or stop linking to them. http://tinyurl.com/2apmyjv
- @AnnaMalczyk It wasn't hard -- wasn't actually using it for anything. Stupid LJ crossposting feature was final straw. Do not want! D:
- Or not so much. Now exploring these possibilities: http://tinyurl.com/382w9kg
- http://topsy.com FTW; actually seems to have access to full Twitter history.
- @TheRiver I'm following these instructions; don't know how "complete" this is: http://www.wikihow.com/Permanently-Delete-a-Facebook-Account
- I just nuked my Facebook account. When the boat anchor starts biting your ankles, it's time to let go.
- @firstfallen I don't think you're being oversensitive. Waiting would have cost little and been worth a lot. They chose to be dicks about it.
- @firstfallen They all deserve to be summoned to a compulsory team-building workshop on Christmas Eve. :P
- I think encasing the whole block in this tree would make the street look much better. Cut window and door holes. http://tinyurl.com/2vjhg3m
