October 2007

The Archives

General
End-of-month Evaluation
10.31.07 | Permalink | Comment?

Accomplishment: I have finished The Sopranos. Not wishing to spoil the ending for others, all I will say is that I found it, after some thought, to be a perfect way to cause the viewer to reflect on their own about what might follow. Non-accomplishment: I cannot find out which coach gave the Ducks their […]
General
Sweet Willy Rollbar
10.25.07 | Permalink | Comment?

Recently someone slipped a Canadian quarter (an “Elkie”) in my change. My first thought was to arrange for the coin’s repatriation, perhaps in exchange for one ounce of beer. Then I realized, what with the current impaired value of the US dollar in international conversion, that this was an investment-grade trove. I had best hang […]
General
Money, TV, Tragedy
10.23.07 | Permalink | Comment?

Earlier today one of my online email sites showed an advertisement promising, to those who opened a trading account, a copy of Currency Trading for Dummies. I don’t know much about this, but I do know that the daily volume is well over a trillion dollars. That should give the average day trader an idea of […]
General
FEAR FIRE FOE
10.22.07 | Permalink | 2 Comments

The Pacific Northwest faces its own share of natural disasters, so this post is not written in smug safety. We get warnings enough of devastating earthquakes and tsunamis that the historical record promises us. When we look on the horizon we can see the sleeping volcanoes. The wet and windy winter storms we’ve been experiencing recently […]
Writing
Putting me in a new tax bracket
10.17.07 | Permalink | Comment?

I got an email this morning alerting me to a paypal transfer of $0.13. This is a royalty for a short story of mine that is on fictionwise.com. Images of Scrooge McDuck swimming in money naturally come to mind.
General
Saboteur
10.13.07 | Permalink | Comment?

Today was a lovely, warm fall day. Between bouts of yard work I went for a bike ride. No one screamed at me from passing cars, which was nice. The bike lane, however, contained many broken bottles. Apparently the locals don’t like bikes. However, the saying has it that it’s the broken glass you don’t […]
Books
Nth-rate Post
10.12.07 | Permalink | Comment?

I think Lessing might turn out to be an inspiration to all authors. Besides her admirable disdain for the Nobel Prize and its process, apparently lately she has been writing “fourth-rate science fiction”. Does that mean third-rate or better SF will become deserving of wider acclaim? Perhaps not, as the quotation is from professional cultural […]
Books, General
Prizes and Gifts
10.11.07 | Permalink | 2 Comments

I’ve not read anything by Doris Lessing that I recall, so I don’t have any opinion whether or not she might be worthy of the prize announced today. However I do have to wonder if any writer still alive really deserves the Nobel more than John Updike. I recently read The Collected Henry Bech and clever man […]
General
“He was never known to make a foolish move.”
10.10.07 | Permalink | Comment?

The lyric quoted above gives a different connotation in context, but my appropriation of it is still apposite. I’m not one for the rash move, at least while sober. Why, my first date with Mrs The Fyd was initiated by an email from me. Even then I was apparently characteristically ambiguous, because she at first didn’t […]