Derek > Recent Status Updates

I pretty much stopped reading Heinlein after Time Enough For Love. He got more right wing, more misogynistic, and just less interesting. I had forgotten what a marvellous mind he had!

"Despite being premature, Alicia had weighed a healthy six pounds at birth…" I guess I'm just being "old", in thinking six pounds seems less than "healthy": these days it's apparently above the lower limit of average, but that baby was born a week before due date. That's not premature, it's not even considered "pre-term". It closer to "average" than the birth weight!

Again with the Canadian glacier.

She's p***ing me off: "Deep below the pack ice of the Canadian glacier…" What? We haven't been ice-bound for many millenia.

Liked Feature Development for Social Networking by Benjamin Rosenbaum | Tor.com http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/11/fe...

I can't stand it. So much pointless description that it obscures the story… if there is one.

He's going to have to work awfully hard to convince me: here we have an abuse of power that I don't believe could work in Canada, where we don't have nearly the concept of individual rights that the US has. Fines of $24,000,000 without even serving any paperwork? I don't think so.

"Oh, sure, I know — time travel makes the most hor­ren­dous of para­doxes pos­si­ble, even prob­a­ble; but that’s just not so. A para­dox would be a vi­o­la­tion of the laws of na­ture. By de­f­i­n­i­tion, they’re the laws of na­ture. And in­vi­o­lable." — That's one whopper of an assumption

"People trying to force their agenda on my by deciding how I'm permitted to speak is offensive."

"He had gone beyond the world of metaphor and simile into the place of things that are, and it was changing him.

Dammit, Goodreads! Stop ruining my GR experience. Every second time I click on a link you send me in my email, I discover you've deleted it! http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Alice Munro is 1st Canadian woman to win Nobel literature prize

I'm in the midst of a YouTube "Hallelujah" marathon. Avoid J Star Valentine at all costs.

I know a few of my GR friends loved The Lies of Locke Lamora. It's currently available for $0.99 (in the US only :( ) from most eBook retailers.

Arrrhh, Maties! 'tis International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

I was looking for the source of a lost-in-translation game (turns out to be Galactic Pot-Healer and found this neat page: pointless and annoying party games played by sf readers

I'm really enjoying this—Barclay gets it! When the cops question our protagonist about something that might get him into trouble, he doesn't lie or evade, he tells the truth—how many times does an author make the characters do stupid things just to advance the plot. This is a whodunnit with all the clues, but lots of red herrings, and you just have to pay attention. It's one of three suspects….

Frederik Pohl, 1919-2013 | Tor.com http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/09/fred...

This is shameless spam, but I've just announced my entry into the literary editing field. If you know someone who needs an editor: http://editing.pointerstop.ca/

Liked The Incrementalists (Excerpt) by Steven Brust,Skyler White | Tor.com http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/08/th...