So Sippin' Smooth

I found this bottle of Sippin' Whiskey in Kentucky.

End of S.H.

Stephen Hero is one of the most influential books of my life, and it's not even complete. I feel exactly how Stephen feels. Only Letters to a Young Poet has driven my artistic sense as far. (And that's next on my re-reading list.)

Manuscripts

I've begun reading Stephen Hero again, this time taking extra-special notice of the way in which it was transcribed from manuscript to print. Because it was an unfinished text, Joyce left all kinds of cross-outs and extra notes on its pages, and the publisher did its best to represent these things with some limited indicators ([ crossed out text ], « inserted text », *misc. footnotes), and it got me thinking about typing my notebooks again.

Around 2006, I began to put my notebooks in a simple text format that was little more than typing page markers and content. By summer 2007 I had given up on this, opting instead to scan the notebooks in their entirety. This provided me with a nice reference when the real notebook was not nearby, but it was still lacking certain special faculties that make computer documents invaluable: searching for text.

Since my recent experiments with XML and XSLT, my appreciation of markup has increased a little. In theory, I could put the entirety of my notebooks in markup, then write a program to search for them, including specific things like all instances of "Equinox" written in blue ink, all crossed-out passages containing cursive, or looking for all text placed written landscape-style on the page. This would be invaluable, and even more so as an interface to bring up search results in terms of the page where the items were found—I could display a scan of the page!

This is a very attractive proposition and I'd like to explore it a little further. I've begun looking online at documents that describe such systems, usually in conjunction with ancient manuscripts. Keep an eye on the bookmarks in the blog's sidebar (or just look here) if you're interested, too.

A Letter to Madame

I wrote it in French originally, so it probably sounds clumsy to the English ear: my letter regarding the decision to leave school.

When good scripts go bad

I used to have a script running that uploaded a feed automatically to ITO, but it broke somehow. I also updated the feed less and less because I grew accustomed to the ease-of-use of blogging at JFO. I'll shortly upload the old stuff as retro posts.

The Good

It has been too long. But I am still writing, and I couldn't be happier with the way EM2 is now going. Those in the know will be seeing more and more of it.

Cable

It's a weird one.

Site Update

You may notice the site changing visually over the next few days. Don't be alarmed. It may even look better now.

EEMM22

I'm 22 years old.

EM2 is getting a slow start; it's up to 1350 words now. I'll write more when I can. It feels quite different from EM1; even the dialogue is snappier. I'm also happy to announce plans to tie in an old character, one who might be my most beloved of all time.

I got my hands on the classic Tezuka manga Phoenix. So far, just the first two volumes (Dawn and Future). I'm not really a manga guy at all, but thanks to the musical efforts of the group System 7, whose latest album was inspired by Phoenix, I discovered a compelling science fiction plot intertwined with an interesting twist on history. I've also ordered the CD version of that album (I bought the MP3 version a few weeks ago) along with a vinyl single containing remixes of one of the album's songs.

Speaking of music, I've been collecting Underworld's Riverrun 12-inch remix vinyls. They're all pretty good, but even better, in the middle of my collecting spree (ordering two at a time to be shipped from the UK), Underworld opened its digital store, which happens to have those very singles in CD quality. I am quite excited about this; I can only hope we'll get more stuff, soon!

I finally picked up a book that has haunted me since I first understood that I liked sci-fi: Eon. It has stared at me from just about every book store and library shelf I can remember. I was actually looking for Poul Anderson's Harvest of Stars, just because, but it wasn't in the store. Eon is interesting, but also provides a reminder of why I prefer "softer" sci-fi: the characters are single-mindedly obsessed with their damned science and math. Most of them are enjoyable in spite of this, but the main female character, Patricia, gets on my nerves. She's either 100% certain or 100% uncertain of herself. I'm probably only 1/5 of the way through it, so things may change. Even if they don't, I have the feeling I won't regret buying the book. On a side note, the book was written during the Cold War (albeit near the end), and the nuclear holocaust scenario that may or may not come true in the story makes me smile a little. I'm glad the Cold War looks rather silly to us now, because it sure didn't seem that way to Bear when he wrote Eon.

My man Emmett pointed out the Forever War books. I've been in a "war sci-fi" rut lately, having gone through Starship Troopers (both the book and the film) and having picked up another copy of John Steakley's Armor (an excellent book, by the way). Maybe I'm just trying to find inspiration for the militaristic aspects of EM2. Oops, did I let that slip out?

Card vs. Rowling: Blowing One's Load

Take a light-hearted read. While I agree with much of what Card says, I don't hold Card much higher in my esteem. At least he's a better writer, and to my knowledge hasn't had a legal explosion. Thanks to my man A "Loch" Huxley.