From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
April 23, 2011 1:21 PM
I've been reading China Miéville's Kraken and have been on a bit of a cephalopod kick lately, which mostly means a lot of trawling the Wired for tentacled paraphernalia, playing Arkham Horror, and discussing the pros and cons of joining a squid cult (I think it could be a lot of fun, but I also think that's probably not why most people who join cults join cults).
This Oscar-nominated, animated short film was a huge hit for both my wee ones (first to fifth grade) and my high school girls:
For a real-life example of the wiles of the octopus, have a video of one using coconut shells to disguise and/or defend itself in the wild:
This immensely envy-inducing cuttlefish ink has been one of my favorite tattoos I've seen floating around the Wired:
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| source: aayla |
I'm not normally a fan of pearls, but I think I could overlook it for this ($1,100) bit o' bling:
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| source: SeaWear |
The rest are from Etsy, an online community of independent sellers offering handmade wares. There are a lot of incredibly talented folks on that site, so check it out!
Look what came in the mail!
April 15, 2011 8:18 PM
Yesterday's peek into the mailbox revealed a postcard from Katrina, who is adventuring with Nick through southeast Asia as I type!
And today I got my order from MOO!
Let's look inside:
Wordy Wednesday #4
April 13, 2011 2:52 PM
Chris Kammerud's review of The Secret History of Fantasy edited by Peter S. Beagle in Fantasy Magazine
An Owomoyela's "All That Touches Air" in Lightspeed Magazine
And An's r[e]print of "God in the Sky" on Expanded Horizons
The fog crawled out of the water and over his body, colonizing his pores, permeating bone and tissue, bleeding off his ability to yell or fight back.He was on his side in a convulsion before the Vosth parasites took his motor functions and stood his body up. They turned around and staggered into the Ocean of Starve, and it was eight years before I saw Menley again.
“It’s just something new,” I said. “It’s something scientific. Like a nova. You don’t go to the Koran for that, you build a better telescope.”My grandfather exhaled, then patted my hand. He was still watching the light. He was probably thinking about the Koran, still, just like all those people had rushed to church on Tuesday morning.Mayor McMahon had said it. This was the thing people were calling God.
It's Dystopia Week on Tor.com! You can keep up on DW posts here.
Happy reading!
Tesla Tuesday #4: Harness the Sun... for Justice
April 12, 2011 9:05 PM
Thoughtquake Studios has come out with a side-scrolling platform game called Tesla: The Weather Man. Here is a description:
Use weather control powers to stop Thomas Edison and his army of DC-powered robots! You play as Nikola Tesla after the triumph of alternating current has sent Edison into a violent rage. Use experimental technology to harness the power of lightning, flood valleys, freeze lakes, levitate boxes, and more in this historical parody puzzle platformer.And here is a demo:
Alas, so far it is only available for Windows.
Did you know that there is an entire album out there dedicated to Nikola Tesla? It's true! It's called Balkan Routes, Vol. 1: Nikola Tesla, and it features a very pleasant title track composed by Zeljko Joksimovic and performed by Ksenija Milosevic and Jelena Tomasevic, which you can listen to here:
Goodnight and interesting dreams, all!
On various minor metamorphoses
April 8, 2011 6:18 PM
You may have noticed on various places in the Wired that I've gone from using my legal name to Jei D. Marcade. The reasons for this are manifold, the most important being that there are eighty thousand frillion bajillion people named Jessica Lee, including at least one erotic paranormal romance novelist and four people who went to my schools and/or saw my dentist.
The second is that almost everyone who has known me on a friendly basis has called me Jei for nearly a decade, and I figured it would make the most sense as a nom de plume.
So there's that.
For the past few weeks I've been leading a rather laid-back, shiftless existence, getting by on the money I have saved up from my last job and mostly lolling about in my pajamas and reading comics all day. After having become accustomed to years of what seemed like perpetual motion, constant stress, and near-lethal doses of sleep deprivation, sometimes I get a little stir-crazy, but there's one thing I will never get sick of:
Like this one:
I didn't even have to make it. This man made it for me:
I know there are those of you who don't remember what the world is like on more than four hours of sleep. I'm here to tell you that it is beautiful. Beautiful. I think. I still don't have my full capacity to form short-term memories back yet.
Yesterday was Jackie Chan's 57th birthday. Today is my dad's! This makes them both Year of the Horse people. Once when I was in Seoul I got a tattoo from a guy called Potter. It's still there, and it looks like this:
In an hour or so I'll be at a pub celebrating my friend Sam, whose birthday was two days ago. He, however, is not a Year of the Horse person; that would be a little too coincidental.
Happy birthday, Dad!
Happy belated birthdays, Sam and Jackie Chan!
Clarion ho!
April 6, 2011 9:41 PM
Hey everyone, I've been sitting on some pretty exciting news for over a month, and have recently been released from an oath of secrecy akin to that of the sneakiest ninja clans: I've been accepted to Clarion West!
What this means is that I'll be spending six weeks this summer in Seattle, reading, writing, and receiving daily instruction from some really cool cats alongside seventeen (well, as I've met one a couple years ago, technically sixteen) shiny new faces. The experience is said to be mega intense, and to be given this chance is a damn fine honor.
In the meantime, be not afeard, for we'll soon be back to our regular scheduled programming!
Cheers,
