“Months ago I proposed a panel on long-running fantasy series, the advantages and disadvantages, about which I know something. It was accepted and I was made the moderator. Last week the semi-final schedule came out. I had been dropped not only from leadership but from the panel altogether. Without warning. The committee wanted to give award finalists more coverage and several of them had expressed an interest in ‘my’ panel. I sent a polite but stiff email, the likes of which I would not want to receive myself. The committee chair replied that she had just been assigned this duty and hadn’t known the history of the idea. Moreover, they had a lot more authors than they had panels, suggesting that other writers had also been dumped.”
— Another brick in the 'How Whiny Losers Cratered Worldcon' wall...Shrine fetish
Amazon Japan just informed me that the third volume of Makino and Tsutsui (A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar) is now in stock. I’ll put it in my next order, because now that I’m fumbling through light novels, I’m running into things not covered by the previous two volumes.
While I was there, of course, I went through their recommendation list. I can’t imagine anyone who’d be interested in something like this…
Juxtaposition...
A friend just called to tell me I might not want to start my drive home just yet, since there’s a big fire near Watsonville. Checking in with Google News, I see these headlines:
Fireworks sales OK in Watsonville despite fire danger
Watsonville Fire Grows To 1000 Acres
Blaze Closes 6-Mile Stretch of Highway 1
[Update: over a thousand acres burned, smoke you can smell from 101, and some nitwit down the street from me is setting off fireworks.]
Today at ANN...
…Sekirei trailers (Windows drm-laden-player only) and the announcement that the Mahoromatic manga artist’s current step-incest comedy, subtly titled kissXsis, will be animated soon.
Dear Hello!Project Costume Designers,
I know, I thought there really wasn’t anything left to say about the horrible outfits you daily inflict on the girls of Tsunku’s army, but this is different. It’s a safety issue.
Useful information...
View from the wing provides a handy piece of information (via Marginal Revolution):
Regardless of what you pay and what fare class you’re booking in, your travel on United between San Francisco and Nagoya, Japan is going to have almost no effect whatsoever on United’s decision-making. They’ve got a very large contract with Toyota and they fill up their 747 with cargo and the flight goes out with very low load factors yet is still profitable for them to operate. That’s why the single easiest flight in the entire United system on which to score an international premium class award ticket on is San Francisco- Nagoya...
More Spore
I couldn’t resist linking to this one. Eeeeeevil.
Queen's Blade: The Solo Game
ANN says Queen’s Blade TV anime series. I expect well-rounded character designs with paper-thin personalities, bound together by fate in a by-the-numbers plot.
One in every crowd...
A short visit to Sporepedia.
The creator:
The artist:
The specialist:
One in every crowd:
