From womzilla:

Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you -- the first 15 you can recall in 15 minutes.

Okay, let's see...

( I fear my list isn't nearly as highbrow as Kevin's )

I've finally gotten all the books packed up, into no fewer than 28 banker's boxes. Now I just have to get the games....(That won't take as long or as many boxes, I hope!) It's appalling how few books it takes to fill a box, and how heavy the box is after.

In preparation for the move to Houston, I've now (today was my last day) quit the job I've held for 19 years. I haven't quite seen the store for the last time -- still need to get my paycheck on Monday -- but no more hours on the time card. Feels kind of weird.

I hear there's going to be a print collection of Kazu Kibuishi's wonderful webcomic Copper.

The protagonist is Echo, and there are Alpha, Sierra, and Victor. I'm guessing, however, that Golf and Hotel aren't going to be important to the story.

brooksmoses reflects on page-of-book memes and asks, "What's the closest book to you right now? Why is it there?"

Well, the closest book to me right now is Jo's Lifelode which I ordered from NESFA Press and just came in the mail today. I'm terribly curious how Jo revised the ending from the draft I read, and I really can't allow myself to read it until I'm done with The Wizard Knight, because when you're reading Wolfe you have to pay attention and remember things -- and I'm still about 50 pages from the end of The Knight, let alone The Wizard.

Now, Lifelode might be sitting on my bed near me just because it still has novelty value, although I'd be more likely just to put it on my "to-read" shelf when I got it home. The real reason I want it close by is so that from time to time I can open it up to the dedication and acknowledgements page and read where it says

This one is for David Goldfarb.

(mjlayman posted about getting her copy last week, but she didn't mention that! Perhaps she didn't want to spoil the surprise.)

I am so chuffed that it makes me want to use phrases like "OMG".

So as you all know, Katie got her degree last year and has been looking for a job.

On Friday she called me up at work and asked me, "Do you want to move to Houston?"
I replied, "Not especially, but if that's where you're going I'm coming with you."

Good thing I haven't yet bought plane tickets to Worldcon.

Unfortunately Hlavaty can no longer claim perfection.

Ganked from kouredios
From Joe at RevSF: Since the memes will not stop until morale improves, we at RevolutionSF.com take a stand.

Here's a nerdy one created by Joe Crowe, for you to irritate all who try to make you tell 38 personal tidbits about yourself to everyone and their mama. And appear cool while doing it.

1. Answer these questions using the first letter of your first name. [or the first letter of your LJ handle] (n.b.: In my case of course these are the same.)
B. You can't use the same word twice. (Part of a title is OK, but you can't use "Batman" as every answer. That would be crazy.)
3. Multiple word answers are OK.
4. If the so-called "friend" who sent it to you has the same first letter as you, you have to use different answers than them. Brutal, we know.
5. Snarky comments are encouraged.

Here's mine:

1. Star Wars character: Darth Vader

2. Star Trek character: Dax

3. Cartoon character: Donald Duck

4. Marvel superhero: D-Man

5. DC supervillain: Darkseid (or Deathbolt or Deadshot)

6. Superpower: danger sense

7. SF or fantasy book title: Dzur

8. Sci-fi-ish gadget, device, or weapon: disintegrator ray

9. Sci-fi, fantasy, horror movie: Donnie Darko

10. Sci-fi-ish TV show: Doctor Who

11. Monster, creature or alien race: Daleks

12. Actor from sci-fi stuff: Peter Davison

13. DC superhero: Duo Damsel

14. Marvel villain: Doctor Doom

15. Whedonverse character: Dawn

For the sake of anybody who cares, here's a list of what I read last year.

(I also had subscriptions to The Bridge World, Science News, Chess Life, The ACBL Bulletin, and Asimov's Science Fiction, all of which I read pretty much as they arrived...plus various blogs and newsgroups.)

73 books total (up from 68 in 2007...of course, some were pretty short), of which 49 were SF or fantasy, 15 were non-fiction, and 9 were literary or historical fiction.

( For the sake of anyone who doesn't care, here's a cut. )

On rec.arts.sf.composition, the topic of humor came up. I mentioned a theory I have, that there are at least four different pathways in the brain that trigger the same reward mechanism (i.e., laughter). zeborahnz asked me to expand on this, and I wound up writing a fairly long essay (someone on rasfc said "This isn't your Ph.D thesis?")...which I want to post here so that I have access to it at will. (And who knows, perhaps even someone will read it and find it edifying.)

As I said, it's long...so a cut.

( Read more... )

Katie tells me that she has now received signature pages from all four of her committee members, and plans to submit her thesis tomorrow morning. At which point she will be done.

She tells me that the office where you file a thesis gives out lollipops...with "Ph.D" on the wrapper.

Anyone out there looking to hire a Ph.D in Physics with experience programming in C++?

Got this one from james_nicoll.

I thought it was surprisingly accurate -- accurate enough to post here, which I don't for most of this sort of quiz.

( What My Taste in Art Says About Me )

Here's the list of categories only, for those who don't care about the questions. Thanks again to Tom Galloway. I'll put a few as teasers, then cut:

Tiptree Through the Tulips

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Horror Show

Darth Be Not Proud

Anne Rice-A-Roni: The New Orleans Treat

Spider's From a Writer's Family; He has the Robinson Jeanne
( Read more... )

And here is the post for game 2.
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For those of you who like to play along at home, here are the questions, with answers in ROT13. I'll put the categories in here, but for those who just want to read the category titles, I'll do a separate post for those. Thanks to Tom Galloway for writing these.

This is game 1; I'll do a separate post for game 2.
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The other big trivia contest at Denvention was "Trivia for Chocolate". This was run by Mark Olson, Steven Silver, and a third person whose name has fallen out of my head...it was something like Jim Hall. Anyway, this one was rapid-fire one-liner trivia questions, with correct answers rewarded with Andes Mints. (There were also a bunch of Tim Tams donated by the Australia in 2010 bid.) Whoever had the most uneaten pieces of chocolate at the end was considered the winner.

The moral of this one was: Timeliness FTW! I showed up at the time scheduled, and the other strong competitors didn't. I had about 10 minutes with no serious competition to build up a lead before Tom Galloway and Leo Doroschenko arrived. (Tom Whitmore had a conflict, alas.) I didn't count how many I had at that point, but it was something over a dozen. A guy by the name of Marty Massoglia came in at about the halfway mark, and he hurt me quite a bit by being faster than me in my areas of strength. Tom was having a bit of an off-day, but Leo nearly won: at the end my margin was only 8 pieces, quite a bit less than my lead when he arrived. If he'd gotten there earlier, I think he'd have taken it. What's more, they used some questions that Leo had written, which he obviously couldn't answer, so that let me build up my margin a little too. (Although I don't think I got as many as 8 pieces from his questions.)

So Leo gets the moral victory, but I was the one who got my name at the top of the list in the newszine.

To paraphrase mangle Cordwainer Smith:

"I was a fannishfan, and he was Tom Whitmore, a Master of Fandom, but I pitted my wits against him and I won."

Some of you may remember the show Win Ben Stein's Money. Well, Tom Galloway did an SF-trivia version called "Win Tom Galloway's Money". He was supposed to do it at ConJosé, but for various reasons it wound up not happening; he has done it at a couple of other cons.

I had the idea that since Tom Whitmore was Fan GoH at Denvention, and he's also terrific at SF trivia, it should be done there, with Tom Whitmore in the title role. This actually happened, with Tom Galloway standing in for Jimmy Kimmel. My reward for the suggestion was that I got to play in the first game (of two that were run). Instead of money, the prizes were books from Tom's collection.

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I wonder if I was the only person at the Worldcon who kept more normal hours than at home?

At the Worldcon, I spent much of the evening to night at parties and socializing. Being an introvert, I was thus wiped out by about 2 AM, which is about when I was going to bed. Since there was usually stuff starting at 10 AM that I wanted to attend, that meant I usually got up in the 9-9:30 range.

At home I'm on the computer till late, which is much less tiring, and I have a job that accepts me coming in at midday. (And no offense to my employers, but: seeing Teresa Nielsen Hayden interview Tom Whitmore is incentive to get out of bed; going to work...isn't.)

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want -- good or bad. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you. Or, if you don't want to post it, but want a memory from me, say so at the end of your comment and I'll reply with one.