Weary, So Tell Me What’s On Your Mind
Jeff VanderMeer • October 15th, 2007 @ 2:40 pm • Uncategorized
I’ve temporarily gotten sick of the internet–no particular reason– so I’m going to take some long walks and do some writing and some reading, and won’t be posting here until Wednesday.
In the meantime, what’s on your mind? What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned in the last week?
Jeff
October 15, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Last night in Ottawa members of the Arcade Fire joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for “State Trooper” and “Keep the Car Runnig”. http://www.stereogum.com/archives/video/bruce-springsteen-covers-arcade-fire-joined-by-win.html#more.
Sounds like Bruce is reaching out to some of the young bands who have cited him as an influence. He’s playing St paul on November 2nd and the Hold Steady are in Minneapolis on the first. Hmmm. I’ve got tickets for both and a little cross-fertilisation between those two shows would be a musical dream com true.
October 15, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Most interesting, however sad, thing I heard in the last week: That the CIA still does business-as-usual with the government of Sudan and does not officially consider the wholesale rape and slaughter of innocent civilians in Darfur to be genocide.
October 15, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Something I’ve learned: If you’re lucky, or extraordinarily resilient, you’ll find that your breaking point is nowhere near as close as you thought it would be.
October 15, 2007 at 7:02 pm
That’s interesting Matt. In the army, I learned something similar: My body could take a whole lot more shit than I thought. That’s worth knowing, actually.
But what I’ve learned in the last week is how to keep my RC helicopter more or less in the air without taking out furniture or causing unwary children to suddenly need stitches. Not sure the value of this, except I love my grandkids and that little machine was expensive!
I’ve been reading a Predator novel by John Shirley that Jeff sent me with my booksale stuff. I dig it. Wouldn’t have expected that. I can say that Jeff’s Predator novel will be more fulfulling to read but this one, I admit, is fun.
Way more fun than work, which is a Big Fat Pain this month and next. Sigh. I’ll just suck it up and look forward to Sam Adams Black Lager and whirring blades in the evening. So! Off to fly.
October 16, 2007 at 1:47 am
I learnt that realizing a creative dream takes work. And it’s fine to be systematic and purposeful while you’re at it. I also realized that when I tackle my dream in a problem-solving mindset, I get results with extraordinary alacrity.
If you haven’t noticed, BoingBoing has a thing about you and New Weird. =)
October 16, 2007 at 6:18 am
That those damned Scandinavians won’t shut up.
(Translation: every time I think I’ve exhausted every Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, or Danish history of the pulps and mystery fiction in those countries, I find four more, which I’m going to have to translate by hand to get the useable parts. That sound you hear is me, bursting into tears. Finnish is haaarrrddddd….).
October 16, 2007 at 7:04 am
(From fightviews)
“By Joe Koizumi
The Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) announced today (Monday) a suspension of the Kameda family because of their terrible violations of rules and regulations in the WBC flyweight title bout last Thursday (October 11). The previously unbeaten WBC #14 ranked Daiki Kameda (10-1, 7 KOs), 18, failed to win the world throne by a lopsided decision against defending titlist Daisuke Naito, a 33-year-old compatriot. Kameda committed repeated fouls of hitting the thigh, head-butting, thumbing, throwing the champ and lifting him up to throw again. In the twelfth and final session, Daiki was penalized no less than three points by the referee Vic Drakulich. Also, before the eleventh, his father/chief second Shiro and his elder brother/ex-WBA 108-pound champ Koki urged Daiki to hurt the champ with fouls, which was clearly recorded on TV. The JBC suspended Daiki for one year and his father Shiro indefinitely as a cornerman. WBA #1/WBC #3 ranked flyweight contender Koki (16-0, 11 KOs), 20, the most popular and flamboyant boxer in Japan, was severely reprimanded for his unsportsmanlike behavior. The JBC’s announcement at 6:30PM caused a nationwide sensation with a great many TV cameras shooting the proceedings which received tremendously big coverage on all news shows.
Monday, October 15 2007″
Apparently, there have been calls for Daiiki to commit ritual suicide, to spare his family the disgrace.
Only in boxing, et cetera…
October 16, 2007 at 7:56 am
Besides discovering that pihaya/dragonfruit come from a gigantic vining cactus that blooms only at night? After that discovery, everything else is pretty dull.
October 16, 2007 at 9:26 am
“I want to know what you’re thinking…tell me what’s on your mind…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijAYN9zVnwg
October 16, 2007 at 9:58 am
I spent a week on vacation without Internet access and was much happier. I was able to get by just fine without checking e-mail regularly. Sadly, I’m tied to a computer at work, so now I can only experiment on avoiding the Internet at home.
October 16, 2007 at 10:14 am
We have a couple large potted plants in our living room. They are big, heavy things in sixteen inch pots made of ceramic. Last week I was watering them and I noticed that one of the pots had been invaded by oblong, yellow mushrooms protruding in bunches from the soil. For some odd reason it reminded me of this book I read once…
October 16, 2007 at 11:28 am
I’ve learned — for the umpteenth time — that money isn’t everything. Not even close. Why do I have to keep learning that particular lesson over and over and over again?
October 16, 2007 at 12:31 pm
If you leave a donut out for the squirrels and turn your back for even fifteen minutes the whole thing will disappear.
I’m scared.
October 16, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Today, as the people in the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence put it, is the six-month “anniversary” of the shootings at Virginia Tech, in which our son Jamie and thirty-two others lost their lives. Also, today, several families of the slain, the wounded, and the traumatized carried a letter to Capitol Hill asking the Senate to pass a bill that would improve the Brady National Instant Criminal Background Check System by requiring that states enter into the registry the records of spousal abusers, persons with mental-health issues involving psychopathic behavior and/or violent fantasies, and convicted felons not yet entered (for whatever reason). Had this bill been in effect seven months ago, it’s highly likely that our slain loved ones would still be alive.
So what’s on our minds today is hope for the passage of this bill before too very much more time passes. Even the NRA has signed off on it, but for a good while Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma has had a hold on it, in part out of concern that it will deprive veterans who’ve had mental-health problems of their right to buy guns. This is a problem with practical legislative solutions. Bringing our loved ones back from the dead, however, is not, and I regard the inability to purchase a gun for a while as a minor inconvenience, whereas — if one is lucky enough to survive a murder attempt — irreversible paralysis, lifelong confinement to a wheelchair, loss of full brain function, taking nourishment through an IV drip, and the like are major inconveniences. Anyway, if any of you reading this feel the same, contact your senators and urge them to vote for the Brady Background Check Improvement bill. Thanks.
October 17, 2007 at 2:52 am
Thanks, Mike. I’ll do that. I hope it passes.
JV
October 17, 2007 at 6:23 am
Today, I learned that being ready to go home is not the same as being ready to leave.
October 17, 2007 at 10:50 am
:(
October 18, 2007 at 12:30 am
It is raining on Titan.