Tad Williams's Blog, page 40
November 22, 2010
Good Day To Be A Tuber
21 November 2010
"Gods absent this month,
We must depend on the wind
That blows through the pines."
— Shido
Yellow bird, up high in banana tree. Shut the hell up.
20 November 2010
Mysteriously, at callbacks today I was also asked to read and sing the Tin Woodman. I wonder if their first choice for the part turned out to be allergic to big cardboard tubes and silver gift-wrapping paper. (Buddy Ebsen joke, of sorts.)
Grey, wet. Good day to be a tuber.
A Nice Friday Evening Problem
19 November 2010
I am contemplating which Mystery Science Theater episode the children and I will view. This is a nice Friday evening problem to have. After finally seeing "Manos, the Hands of Fate", Boy has decided it is, as many think, the worst movie in the MS&T repertoire, but Girl still holds out for "The Wild World of Batwoman."
The Cowardly Lion (my first choice) appears to have been pre-cast, but I have been called back for the Wizard (aka Professor Marvel), my second choice.
18 November 2010
via Maya Bohnhoff: Watch out for those nasty, intolerant middle-eastern religions...
Fathima Bary Needs to Read Her Bible; Final Word on Islam and Apostasy | loonwatch.com
www.loonwatch.com
I'm wondering what these are called on restaurant menus. (Yes, people eat them.) Somehow the names "woodlouse" or "giant undersea roly-poly" don't seem that appealing. Thanks as usual for the great pix, Jessica.
The Strange and Fearful Sea (Facebook link)
Aquatic woodlouse (Bathynomus giganteus). Most woodlice are terrestrial but a few species have returned to the water. Dwelling at extreme depths, the aquatic woodlouse is another example of deep-sea gigantism.
Some striking or bizarre creatures of the vasty deeps.
By: Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Long day and long night, working and running around trying to learn a dance routine for audition. Thirty years since I last did that and I hadn't missed it at all. God I was terrible. Fortunately I can do the rest of the stuff okay.
via Blake Charlton: Thanks to my friend Blake for this — amazing and humbling and exhilarating.
The Animators of Life - Video Library - The New York Times
video.nytimes.com
Building on decades of research and mountains of data, scientists and animators are now recreating in vivid and sometimes jaw-dropping detail the complex inner machinery of living cells.
November 19, 2010
I Have A LOT Of Days Like This
17 November 2010
Just a reminder to all the kind folk who have recommended Facebook friends to me. I don't take suggestions because I don't want to impose on someone who may not know me, but I will friend pretty much anyone who asks.
People Like Me will enjoy this, even if they don't agree with them all.
Total Pro Sports - 9 Sports Team Logos That Need to Be Brought Back
www.totalprosports.com
The kids and I are all trying out for a play tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes. I haven't auditioned for almost thirty years and I suspect I haven't got any better during that time so I'm slightly worried.
Look, I'm as un-turned-on as anyone by new airport screening policies, but how fast do you think the public will turn if someone blows up a plane who could have been caught using the new methods? No. Faster.
16 November 2010
Military parents are frightened because some conservative websites claim: "Obama Regime to force US soldiers to patrol with unloaded guns."
Turns out anonymous source said a unit in Afghanistan has been asked to go out with bullets unchambered and their safeties on. Not quite the same thing as an entire army with unloaded guns.
Why deliberately terrify folks with family members in harm's way? Despicable.
I have a LOT of days like this. What's funny is that it's not even close...
via Ed Naha: Perfect. Just perfect.
Freshman GOPer: Hey, Where's My Health Care?
tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com
Maryland physician Andy Harris (R) just soundly defeated Frank Kratovil, one of the most endangered Democrats on Capitol Hill going into the November election. And he did it in large part by railing against 'Obamacare' and pledging to repeal Health...
The Pillsbury Doughboy's name is Poppin' Fresh. You knew that. But did you know he has a wife, Poppie Fresh, and two kids, Popper and Bun Bun? I didn't.
It was Girl's eleventh birthday tonight and we did family stuff. She enjoyed it. Her mom did too, and went out of her way to mention it. Me and thirteen year old Boy had a good time as well, but with us it mostly had to do with the huge quantities of fried foods.
Words That Are Fun To Say
15 November 2010
via Stacey Hale Hankins: Brill, Stacey. Thanks. My near and dear will really enjoy this.
Numa Numa en Pointe
www.youtube.com
Looks like one of THOSE days.
14 November 2010
via Marc Laidlaw: For those who like this kind of stuff, you'll like this a lot. For those who don't, probably not so much. Andy J., I'm particularly thinking of you. Thanks, Marc, for the cool link.
Media Junkie: Essential Albums: Arm of Roger - The Ham and its Lily
p1start.typepad.com
Arm of Roger The Ham and its Lily 2002 Sweat of the Alps Buy This Album In 1998 an independent rock band from California called Arm of Roger began recording an album they hoped would change the world.
Words that are fun to say: porpoise; Barcelona; sprog; indigenous; systolic; paradoxically; bitumen; ratatouille; spindrift; purplish.
A Day of Sloth and Seared Meat
13 November 2010
A day of sloth and seared meat. One part of me is very happy, another is not. Middle-age has brought an owl into Paradise that keeps me awake nights.
via Sarah Snow:
In Ghanaian Village, American Woman Reigns As King : NPR
www.npr.org
An American secretary living in Maryland got a phone call at 4 a.m. informing her that her uncle had died and she had been chosen as the first woman to rule in Otuam, a fishing community of 7,000 people in Ghana. Peggielene Bartels, 57, accepted the job and now juggles two lives...
Our ten year old, beginning an anecdote. "I was online searching on Miley Cyrus sites for more reasons to hate her. That's how I roll."
12 November 2010
It's wonderful to live in an era when you can have Sutch On Demand.
The semi-legend, Screaming Lord Sutch.
Screaming Lord Sutch - Jack The Ripper (live 1964)
www.youtube.com
Brilliant live clip of the late Lord Sutch doing "Jack The Ripper" in South London sometime in late 1964.
Profile pic from my friend Rick. Never underestimate the little guys.
November 12, 2010
Our Only Real Prize
11 November 2010
I was reflecting on mortality on this page earlier today, then found out only hours later that a friend, a really nice, nice person, had died from a sudden but unknown (natural) cause. It was shocking because she appeared very healthy and was only in her 40s, but also because we know her so we know the immediate family in this particularly tragedy, as opposed to the things you see on television.
We weren't even very close with her and her husband lately because we were school-parent friends and our kids haven't been in school together for five years, but we know them, have been in their house and had them in ours many times, and really liked them both.
Her two kids and her husband have lost their most special person. I can't even guess what they're going through.
So I'm saying grab the ones you have and tell them, especially if you haven't told them lately. Tell them that without the lights we make in each others' lives the universe would be dark and empty.
Don't bother to respond to what I've written here, or at least not to me.
If it makes you think, just pass the thought forward to your special ones, and not just with words; in fact, I ask you to treat them with a little more kindness than you would have, just because it's all so brief and so fragile and love is all we really have. It's our only weapon. It's our only real prize.
Thanks for listening.
Let's get some of these into civilian life as well. I bet one of these would be very good for chastising bad dogs.
Future soldiers may be wearing 'Iron Man' suits
www.cnn.com
A lunchtime crowd is gathering beside the parking lot at Raytheon Sarcos, the defense contractor, on a recent day in Salt Lake City. White-collar workers from nearby office parks stand with their yogurt cups and sandwiches, watching with quiet awe as a man in a metal suit -- sort of half-man, half-robot -- performs superhuman feats of strength.
Another important Veterans' Day thought...
Bumper-Sticker Patriotism Is No Way to Honor Our Veterans
www.huffingtonpost.com
If you really want to honor our troops you won't use them for an easy applause line, you won't use them to get votes, or, most insulting to them of all, to divide us into real Americans and fake Americans.
Made me laugh.
Birds of Britain
www.youtube.com
Hilarious spoof 1970s birds documentary from the Look Around You series 2 DVD
Deb is playing Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good to Me So Far." Great, funny song. Just got back from having some blood drawn for a routine check, my dad just got fitted with a pacemaker and is doing great. There's truth in that title. Fingers crossed, we'll all make it a few more years.
Posted by Hannah Lehrman:
"To all our veterans past, present and future.... Thank you for standing the line, protecting our freedoms, and being true to the american way..... my family will always stand by you. We may not agree on our goverments policy's but always stand behind our troops till all are home from combat areas......"
Animated news time again! Viva Taiwan!
Bush junior defends legacy in memoirs
www.youtube.com
10 November 2010
Hey, let's start a new political party. We'll be the Sensible Party and we'll get all the sane people out of both parties and most of the sane independents as well. We'll just do sensible things and have sensible positions — cautious, thrifty, minding our own business, erring on the side of decency — and ignore the loons. Who's with me?
I hope someday in the distant future my obituary reports "he was a clean old man."
9 November 2010
Thanks to Les Howle — this deserves to be shared. Stockman used to be a fairly straightline Republican (former Reagan budget director) but he was deprogrammed sometime in the 90s. He makes a lot of sense.
David Stockman ridicules GOP on budget - David Cohen
www.politico.com
The ex-Reagan OMB chief makes it clear he has no faith the new Congress will do better than the last.
I worked all day today. You would think someone would come and congratulate me and overpay me and give me Cheez Doodles, but NO.
I blame the government.
These are HORRIBLE! DESPICABLE! But very well done and quite funny. Thanks, Jay!
Bread People
breadpeople.tumblr.com
Bread People is a service that provides pictures of bread celebrities for you to look at.
via Rick Burger: These are wonderful and this guy makes a TON of beautiful, functional mechanical objects. I think he could even make a Continuascope.
How Do These Gears Actually Work? [Video]
www.geekosystem.com
I don't know, this just makes me feel better, somehow...
via Kelli Frederick Stratton: Believe it or not, this is actually part of your job as a human being, to pay attention to stuff like this. Read your orientation manual...!
Seeing Past What it Seems « Brave Girls' Club
bravegirlsclub.com
The United Nations has agreed that the next global disaster will be presented entirely in Auto-Tuned news.
Call me a purist, even a snob, but just because one ticket service company has named itself Fandango doesn't mean another one gets to call itself Ticketdango. I am not convinced, and may NEVER be convinced, that "dango" now can stand on its own, bereft of its fan.
November 10, 2010
Fiat Lux, Baby, and Don't Spare the Watts
8 November 2010
Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered both the Red Planet's moons in 1877. Over 9 kilometers across, Stickney is nearly half the diameter of Phobos itself, so large that the impact that blasted out the crater likely came close to shattering the tiny moon. This stunning, enhanced-color image of Stickney and surroundings was recorded by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed within some six thousand kilometers of Phobos in March of 2008. Even though the surface gravity of asteroid-like Phobos is less than 1/1000th Earth's gravity, streaks suggest loose material has slid down inside the crater walls over time. Light bluish regions near the crater's rim could indicate a relatively freshly exposed surface. The origin of the curious grooves along the surface is mysterious but may be related to the crater-forming impact.
via EzaBella Allyot: Hey, it may be a few days past Halloween, but major props to this costumer...
2009 Best Halloween Costume EVER! CRAZY!
www.youtube.com
Another poodle picture: Oscar contemplates the ruin he has made of his life.
This is our neurotic poodle Oscar, so full of guilt about god knows what that he usually won't let people photograph him. If our dogs went to Narnia, he's the one who'd sell the rest of them out for Turkish Delight — in a heartbeat. Caught him napping on a mirror.
Power just came back on here after about 14 hours of living that swinging Medieval lifestyle. Fiat Lux, baby, and don't spare the watts.
7 November 2010
In case you don't recognize him, that's Joe Flaherty in my profile pic as Guy Caballero, SCTV station owner, with (of course) the fabulous Katherine O'Hara and the equally fab Andrea Martin. Flaherty has prospered the least of the old SCTV main cast, for no good reason. His Bing Crosby was epic.
"There he sits with a pen and a yellow pad
What a handsome lad, that's my boy
B-R-L-F-Q spells mom and dad
Well that ain't too bad, 'cause that's my boy..."
November 7, 2010
Yellow Tape Around My Brain
6 November 2010
via Cory Burghy:
American Public Gets Exactly What It Deserves For 112th Straight Election
www.theonion.com
Those who cannot learn from History are doomed to repeat it. Those who cannot learn from English are doomed to take it again in summer school.
Just because you'll see it eventually, so you might as well see it here. Push the damn button, Frank.
Inception Mouse | Bite.ca
www.bite.ca
Suprised Mouse is suprised.
5 November 2010
Offered without comment. Okay, one: "Duh!"
Green Tide: The More Money You Make, the More Likely You Voted Republican
www.huffingtonpost.com
Despite what you are hearing about Tea Party Populism and hopping mad Main Streeters, one thing is indisputable. The more money you make, the more likely you were to cast a ballot for Republicans in the 2010 elections.
Hoping all our loved ones fly comfortably and land safely back in Britain.
4 November 2010
Apparently Morris the Cat is on Facebook. I get him confused with Charlie the Tuna. Which one is it that wants a canning company to catch him and kill him and chop him up...?
Okay. I am fully integrated with Life once more. I have made peace with myself in a dozen different, important ways. I am ready to engage with the wide, wonderful world! But it's bedtime. Ah, well, I'll try it all again tomorrow.
More animated newsfun from Taiwan.
A special animated look at the 2010 US midterm elections
www.youtube.com
Today is the kind of day where they need to put yellow tape around my brain and keep innocent bystanders back.
November 4, 2010
A Brief Thought From Philosoraptor
2 November 2010
This is so good.
Girl Goes Crazy With Her Cam's Special Effects
www.buzzfeed.com
Write me a haiku about nachos if you have a moment, will you?
A brief thought from Philosoraptor.
Okay, Republican House, you win. So fix the economy.
Election thinking clearly dominated by zombie movies and TV shows:
Zombies are evil.
Zombies like brains.
Brains therefore = bad.
2 November 2010
I'm explaining to our smallest dog and smallest child that they are not allowed to bite people just because we disagree with them politically.
Please take a moment to sign petitions and letters on behalf of Sakineh Astiani. The Iranian government has said they will still execute her (for adultery!) even if it's not by stoning.
Free Sakineh
freesakineh.org
Liked this. So will you.
Follow Tad on Facebook
November 2, 2010
Shiny!
1 November 2010
My friend Corry's email headline to me about tonight's win: "I Knew As Soon As They Signed Mark DeRosa They Were A Team of Destiny."
Shiny!
Baseball query, since I'm basking in this WSW (World-Series-winning) moment. Until SF won tonight, there weren't many other of the old teams that had waited as long. The Cubs, famously, but I can't think of many others. Anyone know off the top of his/her head who else has a long streak going? Now that both Sox teams have won, that's a lot of futility retired...
But now what will I do with the rest of my life?
November. How the hell did THAT happen?
In the midst of all this offensive gloatation by my Giants-fan friends and I, I'd like to stop and just shout out to you, my home dogs in Tejas, Texan friends. Peace. None of this is personal. (Well, my feelings about certain politicians are, yes.) I'd much rather the Giants were beating someone other than the Rangers on their first time in the Series — like the Yanks or Sox or some other Death Star franchise.
31 October 2010
Both President Bushes threw out the first pitch. Barbara Bush kept score.
Giants shut 'em out. Sometimes, the world does turn my way.
I've had several requests for no spiders, bugs, or clowns in my profile pictures. I hope you prefer this new and more wholesome Hallowe'en image.
Fox News Estimates Jon Stewart's Crowd at Seven People
www.borowitzreport.com
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – The Fox News Channel reported today that the turnout for Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" was underwhelming at best, with Fox sources estimating the total turnout at seven people.
30 October 2010
I'm not miserable that the Giants lost tonight — I'm glad Texas fans got a win at their home ballpark — but that is the total extent of my generosity. From now on, I hope we squish them like bugs on the winshield of our four-wheel-drive awesomeness.
Speaking as we were about artists and Yellow Submarine, I should share a little about the REAL artist behind YS, the magnificent Heinz Edelmann, who died last year and was the art director for my German publishers (sadly, before I started working with them.)
The art of Heinz Edelmann
blog.signalnoise.com
Day before Halloween. Profile Picture Parade needs some orange and black action for all the seasons' reasons.
In another FB post I was referring to a great "Yellow-Submarinish" cover illustration. The artist is Bob Pepper (subconsciously influencing my choice of words, no doubt) and you might be surprised to realize you've seen his art more places than you know.
The art of Bob Pepper
www.johncoulthart.com
