S. Andrew Swann's Blog, page 33

Grand Decay. . .

Browsing around the interwebs I've come across some cool galleries of modern ruins. These pictures have a weight to them in times like these, perhaps a glimpse into a common future.

One wonders what Dubai might look like in a dozen years.

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Truffle Update

Truffles is still having a hard time. We're still swimming her 3 days a week, but she's still unable to walk on her own. All the vets we've talked to have given up on a diagnosis so we have no clue what's up with her.

However, we've made a bit of a discovery. If we wrap her paws with vet wrap, she has a lot more traction to go about in her cart. And today we tried getting her to walk with the assistance of a handle we bought when her legs were first going bad. The combination of the vet w...

How to make a geek's head explode. . .

Nooooo it hurts. . .

Make it stop. . .

Cool review of Wolfbreed

Thought I'd point this out on the blog proper. At the Blood of the Muse there's a cool review of Wolfbreed which is not just cool because he liked the book, it's also cool because of the meta-commentary about werewolves in general being the red-headed stepchild of classic monsters.

Werewolves. They are like the annoying little brother of the monster family, a me-too, tag-along, smearing their mustard encrusted corndog over your new iPod type of annoyance. They try to act cool, all slouched...

And then there was one. . .

I'm currently working on Messiah, which is not only the last volume of the Apotheosis Trilogy, it is also quite possibly going to be the capstone on my entire Moreau/Hostile Takeover universe.  I won't say it will be the last book in that universe (never say never) but it is likely to be the last book I write in the internal chronology.  I have this habit of completely destroying the established social order in every iteration of this universe, and there's only so many times you can do that.

T...

Snow, we has it. . .

So how many variations are there of this theme?

The funny photo-blog.

It, I think, started with cats:

Followed by the wonders of fail:

and politics. . .

But now its gone a little overboard. . . we have sites for Jury-Rigging, Cars, Bad Tattoos, Irony, WTF, Female WTF, Photobombing, Win, Real Estate, Weddings, Bad Fashion, Bad Fashion at Wal-Mart, Too Cute Animals. . .

Watch the links, these can be addictive.

My job isn't being relevant

Someone has again scratched a pet peeve of mine, that old pseudo-literary bugbear "relevance."  As in, SF is loosing it, and it better get some quick or else be declared "irrelevant."  This is a bit of an oversimplification of the essay by Jetse de Vries, Should SF Die? But it pretty much encapsulates my problem with the statements made therein:

My viewpoint is that SF is becoming increasingly irrelevant, and that lack of relevance can be attributed to developments and trends already...

I can always tell when Harriet Klausner gets a promo copy…

My RSS reader starts lighting up from my Google feed. She gives me a positive review in her own unique style.

Here.

Here.

And here.

I suspect there's more out there somewhere.

10 things to worry about for the coming year

Enough with the holiday cheer.  Here's a list of ten things that I'm getting paranoid about for the coming year.

The Obama administration has modified a long-standing executive order so now agents of Interpol have full diplomatic immunity.  i.e. We have now a class of law enforcement in this country beyond any rules of search and seizure, Miranda, or any of those annoying due-process concerns.The head of the IPCC (the agency responsible for UN climate change policy) has a cosmically massive...