Gryffyd Eamonn Dempsey

Conflicting Evidence

Gryffyd — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:22:55 +0000

At the Strange Maps website (I just read the book, how old school of me) is this hilarious map, showing the location of all of Ludacris’ hoes, as he identifies them by area code. Per the map, Ludacris has nary a ho in the state of Oregon; nothing in area codes 971, 541, nor 503. However, in the song “Hip Hop Quotables,” Ludacris clearly states that he gets “chicks from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine.” It doesn’t appear from the map that those Maine hoes have been properly reported, either. Since the Area Code song is from an album released two years before “Hip Hop Quotables,” I see an opportunity for Ludacris to update the record.

Q1 Books

Gryffyd — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 23:44:50 +0000

We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction Joan Didion

Tortilla Flat John Steinbeck

Thousand Cranes Yasunari Kawabata

The Immigrants’ Children: Jewish & Italian Memories of Old South Portland Polina Olsen

War and Peace Leo Tolstoy

Jan Vermeer Arthur Wheelock, Jr.

The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian Robin Lane Fox

Gilead Marilynne Robinson

Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities Frank Jacobs

Main Street Sinclair Lewis

Babbitt Sinclair Lewis

Arrowsmith Sinclair Lewis

The Mapmaker’s Eye: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau Jack Nisbet

The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection ed. Gardner Dozois

Cataclysms on the Columbia: The Great Missoula Floods John Eliot Allen, Marjorie Burns, Scott Burns

The Monster of Florence Douglas Preston & Mario Spezi

Les Géorgiques Claude Simon

Under the Jaguar Sun Italo Calvino

California: A History Kevin Starr

Mary Cassatt: Paintings and Prints Frank Getlein

Woo

Gryffyd — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:56:33 +0000

While I’ve been getting my novel, Time is the Water in Which We Swim, ready for publication, I have polished off a few stories and submitted them to various magazines. One story, titled “Little Brother,” has been accepted and is already up at Planet Magazine.

More trends in office interior design

Gryffyd — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:18:41 +0000

I once had a bonsai tree at my desk. It died. I have now replaced it with the fake bonsai below. Under the fluorescent lights, it somehow does not look so garishly plastic.

A Thin Slice of the Working Man’s Life

Gryffyd — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:30:12 +0000

Below is a wee beanbag Mrs The Fyd bought me some years ago. Yes, it is a place for my phone to rest, and is indeed where my phone lies when I am at work and not using it to take pictures of wee beanbags.

Last Books of 2011

Gryffyd — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:27:53 +0000

Historical Atlas of the Northwest: Maps of Exploration and Discovery Derek Hays

The Patron Saint of Liars Ann Patchett

The Science Fiction Century ed. David G. Hartwell

The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians Peter Heather

The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Brief Introduction John Blair

Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F. Stefan Aust

Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami

Cyteen C.J. Cherryh

Portland: People, Politics, and Power 1851-2001 Jewel Lansing

Books Read

Gryffyd — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 22:04:59 +0000

It has been a while since I have updated this irregular series. Look away if a long list of books bores you.

Diplomatic Theory from Machiavelli to Kissinger G.R. Berridge, Maurice Keens-Soper, T.G. Otte

International Politics: A Framework for Analysis K.J. Holsti

Conflict and Cooperation: Evolving Theories of International Relations Marc A. Genest

The Federalist Papers Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison

Alexander Hamilton Ron Chernow

Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 Gordon S. Wood

A Home for Scared People Chris Onstad

Toussaint L’Ouverture: The Haitian Revolution ed. Nick Nesbitt

Champion: Joe Louis, Black Hero in White America Chris Mead

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War Max Brooks

Toussaint Louverture: A Biography Madison Smartt Bell

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution C.L.R. James

Manufacturing Revolution: The Intellectual Origins of Early American Industry Lawrence A. Peskin

Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans Joyce Appleby

Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic Joanne B. Freeman

The Forge of God Greg Bear

The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World ed. David Geggus

Vermeer: A View of Delft Anthony Bailey

Homage to Catalonia George Orwell

Encountering Revolution: Haiti and the Making of the Early Republic Ashli White

The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece Paul Cartledge

Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804: A Brief History with Documents eds. Laurent Dubois & John D. Garrigus

Soldiers & Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity J.E. Lendon

A Proslavery Foreign Policy: Haitian-American Relations during the Early Republic Tim Matthewson

Toussaint’s Clause: The Founding Fathers and the Haitian Revolution Gordon S. Brown

Orders from France: The American and the French in a Revolutionary World, 1780-1820 Roger G. Kennedy

Beowulf transl. Seamus Heaney

The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C. Robert Drews

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe

Grant and Twain: The Story of a Friendship that Changed America Mark Perry

Presumed Innocent Scott Turow

The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño

Geek Love Katherine Dunn

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer James L. Swanson

Beowulf and the Critics J.R.R. Tolkien

A Dance with Dragons George R.R. Martin

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection ed. Gardner Dozois

Next Season

Gryffyd — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:35:38 +0000

The Giants are just about out of the playoff race, which is no huge surprise given the injuries to their lineup. Anyway I wouldn’t want to get greedy, not after last season. Below is a picture taken during a game I attended earlier this season. The first five pennants, in black, represent the World Series victories of the New York teams. Finally, there is a last pennant, in orange, to celebrate the first Series win in San Francisco.

Anachronism

Gryffyd — Fri, 13 May 2011 23:25:17 +0000

I was reading this article and, beyond being struck by the national shame of the subject matter, was intrigued by my reaction to the photo accompanying the piece. Doesn’t the guy in the lower left look like he’s on a cell phone call? Not quite so possible in 1961, and I’m sure his posture indicates a dazed or wounded head. And yet in a half hour, on my short walk to the bus stop, one in five people that I see, walking or standing or sitting, will have a hand to their head and I won’t need to worry that they’ve just suffered violence.

Oops

Gryffyd — Tue, 03 May 2011 02:48:40 +0000

This is what happens when you open your car door without checking your mirror: Yes, if you make that mistake, that bus will crunch your car door real good. And yes, that did happen, despite this picture angle and the sun’s glare not showing it in detail. And yes, that bus full of passengers will have to disembark to wait for the next bus, so there will be plenty of strangers to gawk while you and the bus driver figure it all out. And certainly there might be one amongst that gaggle who will snap a picture for posterity. But will you realise that those two white lines to the side of your car are the boundaries of a bike lane, and that this street is a busy one for bicyclists? It could just as easily have been a biker that you doored, instead of getting your door wrecked by a bus. This kind of inattentiveness is why I’ve pretty much given up on my work bike commute. In other news, here’s a picture of an abandoned syringe I took while waiting for the bus one morning: