http://www.librarything.com/blog/2008/08/cover-page-changes.php

I've revamped each work's "covers" page—a.k.a. "change cover"—to emphasize the higher-quality images among out 1,000,000 covers.

1. The images are bigger, so you can see quality, and because covers are so beautiful.
2. The algorithm now sorts larger covers higher, so that members are more likely to pick higher-quality versions of their cover. The existing sort order was reinforcing the use of low-quality images, even when LT had high-quality ones.
3. High-quality images now say "high quality" and list the original dimensions.

Here are some examples: The Odyssey, Pnin, The Kama Sutra, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Origin of Species, Life of Pi, Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/pimpleball.asp

Four Paws withdraws a "pimple ball" dog toy from the market following reports of injuries to dogs.

random thought du jour: Even though, grammatically, the phrase is perfectly symmetric, "whole different level of" only ever works upwards. (That is, I couldn't say "Kasparov and I both play chess, but I play it at a whole different level", even though it's technically perfectly true.)

Maybe "whole different" refers strictly to the nonintersecting part, since I could certainly say "I play it at a different level" - i.e. Kasparov's level subsumes mine, so I can't say mine is a whole different level - it's part of his.

Bill -- Top form. So much for the "not ready" meme.
Kerry -- Reporting for duty! Where was that soaring oratory 4 years ago when we needed it?
Biden -- Distinctly ... meh. This is our supposed campaign attack dog? Ain't got hardly no fight in 'im. Come on Joe, bring it on. We know you can, and now is the moment. Really. Go.

Oh, and Hillary moving to nominate Barrack by acclaim? Class act. After that plus the home run speech yesterday, she's forgiven. By me anyway. Let's find a good place for that woman's considerable talent.

i am sitting in my living room. yoshi on the couch next to me. the wind from the fan blowing my hair a bit. i have a venti soy white mocha on ice... my tenth or so shot of espresso today. my belly is filled with really damned tasty thai food. i am chatting with a beloved fujis on IM. and i have the supernatural boys on my television. and i got to open up kasuge on a very empty stretch of friars road to 100 and then later, take the 8 to the 805 ramp which is a lovely swoop in a powerful car.

can life really get ANY better than that?

Does anyone on my flist read Japanese? If so please let me know. I need something translated, and Altavista Babelfish and Google Translate aren't cutting it.

Feel free to critique.



I took ( this ) at night on top of Michigan Central Station last week.

When I first looked at it, I thought it said "No pet smoking" and had some bizarre mental images. Too many jerk restaurants smoking chickens on the sidewalk, I guess.

Three unrelated sentences pertaining to Big West Conference coaches:

Long Beach State coach Mary Hegarty hasn't called; I have been requesting an interview with her since June 19.

Basketball: The Woman's Game, a book by Cal State Fullerton coach Dr. Maryalyce Jeremiah, arrived in the mail.

Tomorrow is Pacific coach Lynne Roberts' birthday.

***

According to her Facebook status, Amanda Rego is on her way to Germany. Her ex-San Diego teammates are excited for her, but I have not ascertained whether she is going to play basketball.

Rego was one of the leading assisters in the NCAA for two years, and one of my favorite players. I think she would've been selected in the WNBA draft if the league weren't embracing a midget point guard fad.

***

I feel subdued.

It's very hot. Some East Bay cities reported 100º temperatures today.

Automobile maintenance will cost 37 percent of my money on hand.

Ex-NBA center Kevin Duckworth died. When Dennis Johnson died last year, I did the arithmetic and said, whoa, a professional athlete died and he was just 10 years older. Fucking hell, Duckworth was *younger*.

My friends are winding down. When I was a kid chess prodigy, most of my friends were adults who are now falling apart. Mark developed some sleep disorder, and when he woke up just short of crashing into a family of four, he gave up driving. Alan lost control of his left eye, and now he sees double; he's not driving, either.

I fear the sophomore slump, or worse, one-hit wonderment. How many artists and writers do you know who produced an excellent debut album or book, and then disappeared. The reason is that many creators spend their whole lives getting ready for their first album or book, but after that, what have they got left except what they think of year to year. Masters like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty just hit their stride with their third albums (Born to Run, Damn the Torpedos); that's why they're legends.

There have been some amazing moments at the Democratic convention tonight, including Hillary Clinton's motion to nominate Barack Obama by acclimation and Bill Clinton's speech, and I hope Joe Biden is about to add another one.

But I'm not sure anyone can top the speech Beau Biden just made to introduce his father.

I really want to get over myself and get going on some of my long-neglected projects, but am not sure which one to work on next. Help me choose.

1. My novel, The Downbelow, which was read and liked by an editor at Tor, and for which I have detailed edits and instructions to resubmit, and very likely an eventual sale. I've been procrastinating over it for 2-3 years now. I'm finding it hard to get motivated because the needed revisions seem overwhelming and impossible, but it's probably the case I am making it worse than it really is due to having put it off for too long.

2. The BABI, my intensively researched historical, narrative/creative nonfiction opus about science, biology, computers, and the people that have worked with them (and do and will). Three chapters and outline have been requested by same editor above. This is going to be an amazing book, if I can pull it off.

3. A story which a major short fiction publisher wanted to see a rewrite of, oh, a year or two ago.

4. A completely new short story. (I'm sure no one will choose this one, considering the number of old projects I need to finish, but I think writing and finishing a new piece within a relatively short time may give me some needed momentum and the boost of a quick "success.")

5. Something else?

Had a pretty good Wednesday. J. had half a day off, so we were going to hit Eastern Market in Detroit for lunch and some window shopping and then drive just 4 or 5 miles over to the Motown Museum, which we had free passes to.** The eating and shopping at Eastern Market went really well, but the directions I had from there to the museum took us to an exit that was blocked for road construction, and the alternate route we took put us in some major slow-moving traffic. I'm not sure why it was so slow to merge onto I-94 at 2:40 in the afternoon on a weekday.  We were feeling pretty frustrated by then, so we just went home.

This evening, made really tasty taco salads for dinner and finished up Season 3 of Battlestar Gallactica. We may try to make another go at the Motown museum another week- missing that was my only major disappointment for the day.

**You may able to get free tickets to local southeast Michigan museums, too, by visiting your library.

Palau Patrol Boat Intercepts Suspected Hijacked Fishing Vessel
By (Taiwan News Online)
Thursday: August 28, 2008

A Palau patrol boat has apprehended a Taiwan fishing vessel that was feared hijacked by its crew, and has discovered that the captain is missing, Taiwan News Online reports. The patrol boat intercepted the Tai Yi Hsiang in Palau territorial waters, the news report says. ( Read more... )


Captain of trawler still missing Fonts Size:

E-Mail This

Printer-Friendly





Taiwan News, Staff Writer
Page 2
2008-08-28 01:10 AM

A patrol ship from Palau has found a Taiwanese fishing trawler with its Indonesian crew, but its captain has disappeared, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. ( Read more... )

My story, "Perishables" is live. Here is the link:

NVF

Other contributors include:

S. D. Hintz, John Everson and Paul Kane!

I just ate the most bland avocado I've ever had in my life. Yuck.

Well, shit. Del Martin died.

I know, she was eighty-seven and she'd been ill and all of that. And I don't expect death to embrace the human idea of fair. Still.

I wish her well in whatever comes next.

I've been sitting here for the last hour listening to the DNC nominating speeches while I work on some routine stuff. You know, that "The Great State of Such-and-Such, proud home of the world's largest turnip, proudly casts its votes for ..."

The pathetic part? I'm really enjoying it.

(And the orchestration of letting the vote get to the where Obama *almost* had the total votes to carry it, then the next state in line yielding to Illinois, which yielded to New York so Sen. Clinton could move his nomination by acclamation? Niiiiice.)

http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1496

To answer the person in e-mail who asked if I planned to say much about the Democratic convention: No, not really. As I believe I have mentioned before, right about now, politics makes me feel positively stabby, and I think it’s best for all concerned that I just avoid it all when possible. In fact, to keep my stabbiness to the bare minimum, I’ve unsubscribed to all my usual political blogs and check on the news maybe twice a day, usually skirting over the convention news if I can. I am aware of what’s going on, but I’m not doing my usual “crawl through all the news” thing. I don’t know whether this is making me happier, but I suspect it’s keeping me from being pissed off.

And yes, I plan to keep this up through the Republican convention as well. Don’t worry, I expect you can get your political updates other places.

How I made this year's pesto.

i swear to god, i am connected to the back of mark's brain. once again, i woke up at 3 something fully awake. if i am going to be on swedish time, i want longer days! :::grins:::

we've had a bit of a tiss at Morrigan Books. mostly for me it was the juggling of pages for biddle. they apparently only publish books in widths of a certain type...so there are only set page counts that they use rather than the industry standard of divisible by four. le sigh. so... quick juggling of pages. and then... roll out all of the paperbacks and the hardcover.

MB is going full speed. rather full speed. i think i'm running a bit on full tilt. i think i'm coming down to the final dregs of the art which is good because it's time for my writing brain to click back on. i can't do both at once. :::cheers:::

i finished grants pass art. yay! i'll look for that released image. i chose to replace their everyday sign with a decaf sign. let's see if they notice. no really, we switched out the sign and i took advantage of that to ask if i could name the other areas on the sign. reason? i wanted to give a shout out to my mother. no really, piggie me! :::grins:::

my mother and i were both "born" in kaiwiki....well kaiwiki road but no one really calls it that. people just say kaiwiki. it passed muster and now, it's on its way. i do have to go thru an art query that came in through other channels ::::grins::: i save all of the art queries in a folder so we can reference them.

i have a letter from my mom. nothing much. i'll share. ( sliced for letter )

Del Martin died this morning, with her wife Phyllis Lyon by her side.

I'm so glad she lived long enough to marry the woman who'd been her partner for more than half a century.

http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1492

Yesterday’s Book Haul covered the various hardcovers that had made it into the Scalzi Compound over the last couple of weeks; today we’ve got some of the various paperbacks. Ready? Here we go:

* Wanderlust, Ann Aguirre: The second of Aguirre’s Jax books, in which the main character is has the special ability to navigate faster-than-light ships. This time she’s taken a new job in which she has to deal with various shady types in order to get paid and/or make it out alive. Which I suppose means she’s gotten a gig in publishing. This came out yesterday. Also, apparently today is Ann Aguirre’s birthday. You know what present to give her.

* Legacy, Jeanne C. Stein: The fourth book in the Anna Strong, Vampire series. Our heroine, despite being a vampire an therefore some sort of dead, nevertheless inherits a fortune — but wait! Here comes a very angry werewolf to put a claim on the inheritance! Something tells me this one won’t just be fought in court. Also out now.

* Imaginary Friends: An anthology of stories about — oh, come on, you can guess — imaginary friends. Contributors to this one include my pal Jim C. Hines, SFWA president Russell Davis, Tim Waggoner (who lives just down the road from me), and recent Sidewise award winner Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Hits September 2.

* Acacia, David Anthony Durham: Durham’s very excellent fantasy debut, now in convenient paperback form. I’m a big fan of this book, so check it out if you haven’t done so already. It came out yesterday.

* The Soldier King, Violette Malan: The second novel featuring Dhulyn and Parno, psychic former slave and exiled nobleman, respectively. Trouble occurs when the pair decide to help a captive prince they had previously captured. See, this is why I don’t bother to capture princes anymore. Just too much work. This comes out next Tuesday.

* The Age of the Conglomerates, Thomas Nevins: A very slick-looking book which more or less recasts a 1984 dytopia into a conglomerate business setting. Author Nevins has been working in the publishing world for a while in sales, so this is his debut on the other side of the shark tank. Happy swimming, Thomas! This is out now.

* Just One Bite, Kimberly Raye: The fourth book in a series about a dating service for supernatural and occasionally undead folks. I find this a strangely appealing concept myself. Everyone needs love, folks. Everyone needs love. Out now.

* Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory: It’s the 1950s (mostly) and people all over the US are finding themselves possessed. One of them is looking for help to get rid of the demon inside his head, and his quest will, among other things, lead him to Philip K. Dick. No, really, it says so right here on the back cover. Tell you what, I’m looking forward to reading how that will pan out. This book came out yesterday.

* Heaven’s Net is Wide, Lian Hearn: The prequel to the Otori series, now available in paperback. Or will be available, next Tuesday.

* Leaving Fortusa, John Grant: Grant is perhaps better known for his nonfiction (most recently for his tomes Discarded Science and Corrupted Science, on the subjects suggested in the titles, and both of which I recommend), and this is a “novel in ten episodes” about the future of humanity. From Norilana Books, which is run by author Vera Nazarian. This comes out in October.

* Break of Dawn, Chris Marie Green: More vampires! They’re very popular these days, aren’t they. This is the third book of the “Vampire Babylon” trilogy. It comes out September 2.

* Elric: To Rescue Tanelorn, Michael Moorcock: Yay! More Elric! Also, it’s out now. That is all.

* A Field Guide to Surreal Botany: Co-Edited by frequent Whatever commenter Jason Erik Lundberg, this excellently fanciful volume features contributions from noted surreal botanists such as Jay Lake, Ann Leckie, Jon Hansen, Lucy A. Snyder and Merrie Haskell. The perfect thing to confuse the gardener in your life. Unlike the other books in this entry, it’s not on Amazon, so let point you in the direction of the publisher, Two Cranes Press.

I crave your thoughts on this collection of books.

Del Martin just died.

One of those minor personal heroes who I always just enjoyed the presence of in the world.

She looked pretty fragile at her (second) wedding celebration, some 72 days ago, so as I say, not a surprise. But nonetheless a moment in time.

(And I didn't at all know about her work for and with battered women. I just knew about Daughters of Bilitis and her work to get homosexuality off the list of mental disorders, and a few other things. Quite a lady.)

Memorial gifts in her memory, thank you Mactavish, can be sent to the No on 8 campaign. That's the campaign to help defeat the ballot referendum which'd repeal the marriage rights of gay citizens.

A bit of conventional wisdom that I learned very late is "never purchase a car for $1,000", because the unseen costs will be far greater.

For instance, four years ago I bought a 1989 Volvo 240DL wagon for $1,200. It must've been the most wonderful workhorse *20* years ago, but it ultimately cost an average of $650 per month before my mechanic gave up on it and broke his own heart.

A year after that, I resumed driving the aircooled Volkswagens that I loved so much, but you've heard the story of how the 1971 Squareback made one final, valiant push to Arco Arena before I left it in Sacramento, and drove home in a 2006 PT Cruiser. (I got zero in trade for the Squareback, but bloody hell, I'd just put a new storage compartment liner in it *and* a tank of gas. I'm sure some VW collector somewhere is restoring that Squareback; there was enormous potential in that car for someone who didn't actually have to drive it.)

The PT Cruiser cost about as much as 12 aircooled Volkswagens, but you can imagine I've saved some money because it's never required a tow, and I remind myself that the peace of mind is priceless every time the Cruiser successfully crosses the Altamont Pass to or from a game in Stockton.

The Volkswagens were in and out of the shop perpetually. I usually had two cars, and hoped one would keep hobbling until the other one was ready to go, and then I'd swap cars with the mechanic. The Cruiser, on the other hand, has needed no more than its scheduled service at 30,000 miles, and today at 60,000 miles.

Today's bill equals two Volkswagens.