Sometimes, when you look at information on being prepared for emergencies, you notice a certain, shall we say, Utah flavor to some of the information. So if you want to go to the source, check out Provident Living. I think some of the tips may be based more on scripture than practicality, but I really can’t argue with the family home evening.
Monthly Archives: December 2006
I hate the burning, but I don't mind the swelling
From the description of a propane space heater:
“30K BTU Blue Flame Prpane Space Heater makes supplemental heating fast and easy. Built in Oxygen Depletion Sensor for unparalleled safety. Can easily be operated during power failure. Cool touch cabinet keeps you far away from burnt concerns.”
Wow, I hate it when I burn my concerns.
Sock Wars!
Wow, this is a cool idea: assassination by socks. Though continuing your dead target’s knitting might be intimidating (or liberating, depending how far along they are).
Dzur Review
Dzur, Brust. Yes. Brust uses a couple devices in this installment near the limits of what they’ll tolerate, aggravated by my belief that the parallel construction (device one) seems to exist only to help justify the weak tie of the action to the title (device two). That (minor, really) distraction aside, this is a Vlad Taltos novel, in more of the classic mold than we’ve seen in several books. As cranky as I’ve become of late, I still enjoy Brust’s writing.
I remembered his ties to the so-called "Pre-Joycean Fellowship" and dug around to find out what that’s about (when I last considered the question, rec.arts.sf (pre-split) was my sole source of info; things have changed somewhat). Finding this old post of Brust’s has yet again brought home the realization that I’m not looking for straight-forward storytelling so much as I am looking for writing in service of the story and the characters. If your story needs trickery (and you’re good enough to pull it off), you must get tricky. Zelazny is, after all, a hero of mine, too.
Is Muslim the new gay?
I’m amazed at the amount of unvarnished anti-Muslim bigotry that’s being thrown around. I suppose it’s likely enough that these nutcases would say (or are saying) the same thing about the openly gay members of Congress, and it’s just not getting as much play, but I can’t help thinking there’s a new bottom rung on the ladder.
StormBlog 2006!
Since we live in an area with a minimum of grisly murders and appalling scandals, local news has to make due with storms to whip themselves into a frenzy. I have yet to tune in to find out what this storm has been named.
Consumer Corner:
The recommended products for your several days without power are:
1. small radio with speaker and headphone jack, runs on AA batteries
2. small flashlights, run on AA batteries
3. novelty battery-operated white LED Xmas lights, run on AA batteries
4. Light Wedge white LED book illuminator, runs on AA batteries
5. a whole bunch of AA batteries
Your optional purchases:
iPod
Nintendo DS
Craft Corner!
You can make a hot water bottle out of an empty 2 liter soda container and some hot water! You can also make a tasteful and warm non-itchy hat from a pair of tights!
Recipe Corner!
It turns out you can fry Pilsbury Toaster Strudel when only your stove is working.
dead amid rats
Another garbage house, but with rats instead of cats.
Ask the Dust Review
Ask the Dust, Fante. Yes. Another Dan Bern suggestion, and another well-written work. I deferred the Charles Bukowski introduction until I had finished the book, as so many introductions say too much about what follows. If an author wants to spill what’s going on in an introduction to his own work, that’s one thing, but nobody else ought to presume. Turns out Bukowski did a very good job of talking about why he loved Fante without saying anything damagingly revealing about the book itself. Both Fante and Ring Lardner write very well about—well, people—and that so frequently means that there’s an undertone (or sometimes fundamental tone) of despair that reminds me why I can’t read too much Theodore Sturgeon at a time. It also means, sometimes, that my attention span isn’t long enough, so I every so often long for something to happen, already. I will pretend this is the same thing a colleague of mine means when he says he prefers books with a "big idea". Y’know, like Zombies.
Too bad it's so damp outside
As hesitant as I would normally be to buy something from a “Mr. McGroovy,” his box rivets have riveted me. Now I want to build huge structures out of cardboard liberated from the recycle dumpster at work.
Thanks, Wikipedia
Wikipedia finally got an updated page about Forced Perspective. It’s still not exhaustive, omitting at least still photography, but it at least acknowledges the architectural uses. If I were a better person, I would update it instead of whining; but if I were that person, I would have updated it a couple years ago.