READIN

Monday, June 30th, 2003

Dixon reflected ... on how inefficient a bar to wasting one's time was the knowledge that one was wasting it (and especially in what Welch termed 'matters of the heart')...

Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim

I was reminded this weekend of this fine book and reread about the first half of it. It is a hilarious, dark satire of academia.

posted evening of June 30th, 2003: Respond
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🦋 Dream Blogging

I was at a political event of some kind and was reading a newspaper article -- op-ed piece, in that pink paper from Britain -- the thesis was, we are currently at a historic cusp; because cat ownership -- historically correlated to poverty and superstition -- was increasing in the US at the same time that wealth and education were increasing.

I went back to the same place the next evening and noticed that it was huge; a block-long, architecturally ornate (not in a good way), postmodern cathedral -- a cathedral as designed by P.T. Bridgeport -- the sign in front said, "Center for Faith and Reason". Inside a huge costume ball was in progress, in full Rocky Horror mode. I came to understand that it was a Wiccan ceremony although nobody I asked would say as much. -- Indeed nobody would meet my eye or talk straight to me.

posted morning of June 30th, 2003: Respond
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Saturday, June 28th, 2003

Wow -- another blogroll to READIN; and this is my first from a blog I have never read, though I have heard of it -- Planned Obsolescence. I gave it a brief browse just now and looks fine, well worth knowing about -- some law, some Pynchon; nice format!

The problem with my links format (to yer left) is, I can't really add a site to my list until I know it well enough to categorize it. What I need to do is, add a category for "links I found out about recently and am interested in getting to know" with an easy way for those to migrate into categories once I have figured out where the link belongs.

posted morning of June 28th, 2003: Respond

Friday, June 27th, 2003

This has got to be a blogging milestone of some sort -- a brand-new blogger has copied his template from my page! Go check VLORBIK out.

posted evening of June 27th, 2003: Respond

Ooh boy, I just clicked on an old post from Dr. Healy and found that Larry Gonick has published part III of his history of the Universe! Gotta run out and get that. I won't use Amazon, I won't use Amazon,... I expect Coliseum has got it.

posted afternoon of June 27th, 2003: Respond
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🦋 Dream Blogging

One of the British bloggers -- I think it was Avedon Carol -- had a post up about the British response to the Academy Awards. Apparently, it was to broadcast a film by a British director whose avocation was masonry, of himself building a brick wall, followed by a mock ceremony in which he accepted a separate gold statue for each segment of the wall. Very weird...

posted morning of June 27th, 2003: Respond

Thursday, June 26th, 2003

Way cool -- another blogroll link to READIN, this one comes from the Invisible Adjunct.

posted evening of June 26th, 2003: Respond

Wednesday, June 25th, 2003

"I have read Lolita, as you requested. It is a good book, and therefore you should try to sell it to the inhabitants of Hardborough. They won't understand it, but that is all to the good. Understanding makes the mind lazy."

Penelope Fitzgerald, The Book Shop

Can you dig it — Understanding makes the mind lazy!!! This will be my slogan from now on, or until I find a better.

...

Two bits of good news: Coliseum Books has reopened, and very near my place of employment! I have been there twice already. And, this weekend we are going to visit Eva in Craryville which means, a chance to visit Rodgers Book Barn!

posted evening of June 25th, 2003: Respond
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It often seemed to her that if she knew exactly what her financial position was down to the last three farthings, ... she would not have the courage to carry on for another day.

Penelope Fitzgerald, The Book Shop

The book is engrossing and funny. Very warm, sympathetic characterization of Mrs. Green and of Christine. The other characters seem thus far (halfway) mainly foils to Mrs. Green.

posted morning of June 25th, 2003: Respond
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🦋 Story idea

Woo-hoo! The germ, the very germ of a fiction has come to me while I slept last night! Here it is:

The story concerns two bloggers: a male programmer and a female cartoonist. The two interact for a while at the beginning of the story when he finds her site, is interested by the art, they e-mail back and forth; they add each other's sites to their links. Move forward in time, they have not looked at each other's sites for a while nor communicated, but the links remain. Fast forward a year (say) and he comes to be served with subpoena. She is under investigation by the Justice Dept. for violation of the CIPA -- she had begun a very graphic exploration of her identity as a rape survivor which includes images of her as a child deemed pornographic by Ashcroft's minions; a SWAT team has raided her residence and seized her computer with all blog data; and her referral log shows many visitors have gotten there via his link.

Not sure quite where the story goes from there; -- I am not sure how plausible the whole CIPA thing is and how much of a case they would have against her. I am thinking maybe the investigation will go away after disrupting everyone's life for a while. At which point he examines her site, finds it repellent -- he would not have linked to her if this stuff had been up when he first browsed it -- perhaps due to unresolved issues of his own? Maybe they will have further dialog, I don't know how this experience will affect her and her work, though I think clearly it would radicalize her -- I reckon she would have been kind of radical to begin with.

posted morning of June 25th, 2003: Respond
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