Tad Williams's Blog, page 37
February 26, 2011
Talking Philosophy with the Dogs
25 February 2011
Whoa.
Old Men Lightsaber Duel (Return Of The Geriatric)
www.youtube.com
A group of French old men arguing when a deadly lightsaber duel kicks in!
Back from basketball. I wrote so much this week I don't even feel I need to try to force myself to do a little work. I think I'm going to go and talk philosophy with the dogs.
Woof.
23 February 2011
Fabulous.
The extraordinary face of the Moon | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
blogs.discovermagazine.com
Astronomy | Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter | Seen the full Moon lately? Maybe you have, but I can pretty much guarantee you've never seen it like this
February 23, 2011
The Think-and-Read Part of the Evening
22 February 2011
Long night. Girl away at friends' house. Let Boy play late, then I watched half of Iron Man 2 with him after his mother fell asleep. Then I came back and edited some more. So the think-and-read part of the evening is only now beginning, about an hour or so later than I'd like. Bother.
Thoughts going out to friends and strangers alike in Christchurch, New Zealand.
21 February 2011
In lieu of a proper Presidents' Day song, I am listening to the Bee Gees "Holiday". I am open to other suggestions, however. "Abraham, Martin, and John" was considered and discarded as unfair to George.
I am old enough to have seen with my own eyes the systematic destruction of the American public educational system, once one of our proudest national achievements. It wasn't the teachers' unions or "bad" teachers that did it, it was a concerted attack by people who don't like to pay taxes for anyone's good but their own.
Why America's teachers are enraged
www.cnn.com
Thousands of teachers, nurses, firefighters and other public sector workers have camped out at the Wisconsin Capitol, protesting Republican Gov. Scott Walker's efforts to reduce their take-home pay — by increasing their contribution to their pension plans and health care benefits — and restrict their collective bargaining rights.
February 21, 2011
San Judas
20 February 2011
Wow. Shocker.
Koch Brothers Behind Wisconsin Effort To Kill Public Unions
blogs.forbes.com
As the nation focuses on the efforts of Governor Scott Walker to take away collective bargaining rights from public employees in Wisconsin, new information is coming to light that reveals what is truly going on here.
The message: either be REALLY green or don't bother.
Plastic fantastic! Carrier bags 'not eco-villains after all' - Green Living, En
www.independent.co.uk
Unpublished government research suggests the plastic carrier bag may not be an eco-villain after all, but – whisper it – an unsung hero. Hated by environmentalists and shunned by shoppers, the disposable plastic bag is piling up in a shame-filled corner of retail history.
I had no idea there was a whole artsy underground Rollins/Danzig slash illustration subculture. (But now that I know, it seems so OBVIOUS...)
Henry & Glenn Forever! Art Show
www.laluzdejesus.com
"Henry & Glenn Forever," a comic book by the Los Angeles art fraternity Igloo Tornado that contemplates the question, "What if Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig were a little more than 'friends?'" has become a cult phenomenon in the comics and music scene since its release in April.
I'm posting very cool piece especially for our son, who really should see it...
Flavorwire » 10 Artists Who Use Video Games as Their Medium
flavorwire.com
carved coffins. cool cadaver containers.
Getting Buried In Ghana Looks Awesome! (Pics) ::
MEKNOWPAUSE.COM LIFESTYLE - LIFESTYLE
fooyoh.com
Getting Buried In Ghana Looks Awesome! (Pics)
19 February 2011
One of the really fun things about the Bobby Dollar/Angel Doloriel books is that I get to invent an entirely imaginary city that lies right on top the actual place I live and in which I grew up, the Peninsula of the SF Bay Area. The imaginary city is called San Judas, and I'm having nearly as much fun just playing with that as I am with the rest of the story — and I'm having a lot of fun with the rest of the story.
Walter (new dog) is trying to convince Frankie (not so new dog) to play. He is doing this by barking shrilly, over and over and over and over and over. Hey, why wouldn't THAT work?
If someone shared this with me and I've forgotten, please credit yourself here. It's a cool thing I wanted to share with others.
Thanks, Grant, for tipping me off to this. So extremely cool!
LightWarriorK, awesome job!
Shadowmarch Castle (80 pics!!) - Minecraft Forums
www.minecraftforum.net
18 February 2011
Should be playing basketball today, but the lingering effects of a cold and a number of other duties interfere. Bah. Still, life is good in a myriad of other ways. For instance, we could have FIVE insane dogs instead of just four.
My daughter is at that strange age where she has crushes on boys but still wants me to read "Olivia" books to her sometimes.
17 February 2011
Our time in the weird spring-weather-bubble is over. The rains have swept in and it's Real February again. I don't mind. However, it's definitely weather more conducive to lying in bed than to the performance of actual labor.
Good buttered toast day, though...
16 February 2011
Cold is mostly gone. I'm trying to work a lot and that leaves room for basically family time and the Oz play, which will be over by the end of March so I don't mind. But I feel sorry I'm not getting to see more friends or do other things. And my correspondence...Jiminy! Don't ask.
February 16, 2011
Sometimes You Find the Character in the Voice
15 February 2011
This is a very cool idea and worth a careful look.
Damn Cool Pics: 75 Incredible "Looking Into The Past" Pictures
damncoolpics.blogspot.com
Imagine how drastic your landscape would be if you altered just one aspect of it. These fascinating pictures merge the past with the present with very impressive results. The contrast in the photos will make you appreciate just how much progress we've made since back then.
I don't think we need to limit this to "right-wing Americans." Magical thinking is everywhere, and not in a good way.
Dangerous Minds | Facts? We don't need your stinking facts! Why right-wing Americans are so stubborn
www.dangerousminds.net
There's a transcript of a speech that Bill Moyers gave in January to History Makers, an organization of broadcasters and producers who make factual programs, posted at Alternet. It's a very interesting talk, but ultimately depressing. He cites an July 2010 article from the Boston Globe that sets...
14 February 2011
Bizarro Tad happy because me have cold. Me love head like cement and nose full of prickly ants. Hooray! Me never want to feel different!
13 February 2011
Back from afternoon-long rehearsal — all of Act 2 of WIZARD OF OZ. We managed it, but we need to get off-book. Then we'll get through in about half the time. Sometimes you find the character in the voice, but I've decided this one is in the buttocks. (Honestly, it's not as weird as it sounds...well, okay, maybe it is.)
As a rule, I stay away from deadly birds even in non-cyclone situations.
Australians hit by Cyclone Yasi warned to stay away from deadly giant birds
www.telegraph.co.uk
Australians trying to rebuild in the wake of Cyclone Yasi have been warned to stay away from cassowaries – huge flightless birds with claws that can disembowel a human – on the hunt for food after their habitat was destroyed by the storm.
We spent the day taking literally thousands of pictures for a project. When it is finished, we will share it. And on that day, all those who called me mad...will be proved right or wrong. Or both.
February 13, 2011
Chupawahbra
12 February 2011
Has anyone else experienced the strange current FB glitch I have? When you click on someone's picture or name, sometimes it takes your browser back to the previous page, which isn't even Facebook.
Three of my heroes have their birthdays today — Bill Russell, Charles Darwin, and Abraham Lincoln. Salute!
Chupacabra.
When you meet a gent payin' all kinds of rent
For a flat that could flatten the Taj Mahal
Call it sad, call it funny, but it's better than even money
That the guy's only doing it for some doll
9 February 2011
First hundred pages on "JUDGEMENT DAY" written and revised. I'm feeling it now. Hope to have the first draft finished by the end of March, although that's obviously optimistic. But I'm -feeling- optimistic...
Interestingly, none of the items on my "bucket list" have anything to do with wheeled vehicles except for #17, "Drive a combine harvester over Niagara Falls".
You know some of the amusing things I write here? Remember, I'm a trained professional — others shouldn't try it at home. People could be hurt or even killed.
The wonders of the 21st Century — collect them all! This evening at dinner 11 year old Girl used her iPod to surreptitiously film her brother in an attempt to prove how disgustingly open-mouthededly he was chewing. This is a huge area of disaffection for her, her older brother's chewing. The rest of us have become a bit tired of the issue.
February 8, 2011
Large Crustaceans
7 February 2011
Apparently (I say apparently because most of her remarks in the interview I just read are perilously close to gibberish) Sarah Palin believes that Obama has failed in his duty to let the American people know who will follow Mubarak as leader of Egypt. Hmmm. Wouldn't that sort of cut the Egyptian people out of the loop...?
via Mi Robin. This is where we should play our next band reunion, boys.
Dangerous Minds | Monkey waitress in human mask
www.dangerousminds.net
Kayabuki is a restuarant where monkeys are the waitstaff, but in a weird twist, they have them wearing "human" masks (which I' sure they're not that thrilled with). You can read more about Kayabuki and its mask-wearing simian employees here. (via Cynical-C)
My profile is Eddie Anderson, the wonderful comedian who played Rochester on the old Jack Benny TV show. I could write a whole essay on his character as a bellwether of race relations in America, but the main factors in the change of his character over the years were Anderson and Benny themselves, two very smart, very funny men.
I'm so sore and weary that I feel like I've been carrying a hod all day, or some similarly old-timey yet backbreaking labor that seems quaint now but was probably a solid bitch back in the day.
Anyway, I'm tired. Yes, that was a ridiculous sentence — whaddaya want? Writers take weekends off, too, y'know.
6 February 2011
Another busy friends-and-family day. For those of you suffering in other parts of the country, I won't mention the eerily spectacular weather we're having...much. Let's just put it this way — shorts and t-shirts only recently put away are being pulled out again. Sorry about that, Rest of America.
I write novels of the imagination because I can. But I collect large crustaceans because I must.
I love this very much.
How to Serve Slightly Chilled Revenge [COMIC]
www.cracked.com
Revenge is best served cold. But this will do.
February 6, 2011
Friday Night Conversation Starter
5 February 2011
Another busy day ahead after a quiet morning. Feed younger child, theater Work Day (painting sets, so on) then to a LARP to pick up nephews for sleepover.
I'm almost back to the part in JUDGEMENT (been rewriting) where I introduce Garcia Windhover (very unimpressive gangster son of hippie parents), and then soon after that the informant who looks like a cream pitcher. I already introduced Fatback the were-pig.
"I just had to tell you how pretty you were, which is really weird because normally I stay far away from all whores of Satan."
"Hey, you want to meet a lucky guy? I'm in this car crash and FOUR HOOKERS die but I come out without a scratch."
"Bad day? Tell me about it. How many paternity suits are they allowed to give you in 24 hours, anyway?"
"I had mine tattooed to look like a moray eel. Wanna see?"
Friday Night Conversation Starter: "I lived happily with my Mom for a long time, until they made me bury her."
Friday Night Conversation Starter: "Would you know how I could get a new parole officer? Mine is always bugging me."
Friday Night Conversation Starter: "There's hardly any blood in my phlegm these days."
4 February 2011
Today's itinerary: play basketball, trip to the vet (for a dog, not me), family get-together including Bengali folk music (will explain later) and perhaps, if I'm lucky, a little thinking time about midnight. I'm deep in JUDGEMENT DAY and need reflection time for best plotting results.
Some people's spelling is so bad that it acts as kind of an anti-spelling vortex — while I'm looking at it, I can't remember how the word actually SHOULD be spelled...
February 4, 2011
Walter
3 February 2011
If you were me
Then who would I be?
If I were you
You couldn't be, too.
—Tad, avoiding work
And every piece will say "I love you"...
2 February 2011
Votes are in. New dog's name is "Walter", which headed off last minute, out-of-left-field bids by "Hercules" and "Victor", both of which Dad deemed too damn heroical for something that looks like a salamander with ears.
Here's another picture of the new thing so you can get a better idea of his immense, fruitbat ears. I swear they're bigger than the rest of him.
Here is the new thing. He's so wiggly and nervous that it's really hard to get a picture of him. Plus he's tiny — he makes the other chihuahua look like Lou Ferrigno.
After a long dog-hiring freeze we have finally decided that the economy has rebounded enough for us to open and fill a new dog position, bringing our household canine job force to four. New dog as yet unnamed. He is small and skinny. We don't know if he'll bring anything to the family bowling team yet, and he has no money of his own. So far I'm not too impressed.
31 January 2011
This IS my beautiful house! This IS my beautiful wife! How did I get here?
30 January 2011
The internet is what the ancients believed in but could not experience — the Aether. Voices riding the invisible currents.
January 30, 2011
Cat, Persecution By
29 January 2011
Little known fact: like March, February comes in like a lion, but it goes out like a hamster in tennis shoes.
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Oh, God, sometimes I wish I was two or three people. I never have the time to see friends as much as I'd like and still get everything else done. No, it's fairer to say that I don't plan my time well enough. But dang, sometimes it feels like trying to read the dashboard GPS in the middle of a four-wheel skid...
The irritating cat has been hanging around. I told him, "You should understand, your complaints do not have quite the same level of significance for me as they clearly do for you."
28 January 2011
Jeez, a guy eats a couple of kittens in public and everyone treats him like he's a monster. Last time I have my lunch in the park.
27 January 2011
Some of these are quite good.
What Our Pets Are Probably Dreaming About
www.cracked.com
Pets have vivid dream lives. We've seen the video to prove it. A glimpse of what those dreams look like.
I told the turtle just before I turned his light out, "Tonight is magic. You're going to sleep for a hundred years and it'll feel just like one night. Everything outside your tank is going to be totally different!" The funny part is, he's really near-sighted.
"Cat, Persecution By" update: I have discovered something that will chase my obnoxious cat away when I am trying to work. He detests having pickle juice dripped on his back.
26 January 2011
How do I rearrange the "photos of you" section again? I don't even recognize where most of these things came from.
My daughter is flying her little radio controlled helicopter (she saved up for it) into the walls, then weeping "It doesn't work!" Needless to say, Dad keeps saying, "Read the manual, honey. I'll help you when I'm done with my writing for the day."
Very dope.
The Daily What
thedailywh.at
This Is Informative, You Should Listen To It of the Day: A brief history of hip hop, as told through the international language of beatboxing.
I am being persecuted by an attention-seeking cat. I am about 11 o'clock close to waxing his tail and making a candle of him.
January 26, 2011
Chihuahua Love God
25 January 2011
Frank D. Wah gets hisself a business card.
via Nadine Wilson. Wow. I suppose we should be grateful we just had a regular tree-crash instead of THIS leaping onto our house...
A Creepy Monster of the Forest: The Albino, Vampiric Redwood Tree
blogs.discovermagazine.com
Organisms with albino mutations are pretty weird in general, but albino plants are extra weird.
Okay, here's the important question: now that we're into 2011, anybody see any improvement over 2010 so far? 'Cause except for the Giants, 2010 sucked.
24 January 2011
My profile picture for the day is a reminder to self on a Monday: the Hardest Working Man in Show Business.
"Before you slip into unconsciousness, I'd like to have another kiss..."
Farewell, Jack Lalanne. You were bending and stretching in the background of much of my childhood.
