Saturday afternoon: Behind on the whole posting thing . . . (First of three) General stuff

1. I have a fresh pot of Columbian Supremo and some stories to tell. I love it when you can really, truly taste the coffee. A colleague at work also works at Cool Beans in Queensbury and passes on the good stuff for his price, which is $5.50 for excellent coffee.

2. Last night I have a sleep test. I think it was my fourth. We know I have "very severe sleep apnea." This one came, because I have a new doctor, and I have not been sleeping well. For the apnea geeks, my mask was a size too big, and the pressure was too low. I woke up with that great "refreshed and focused" feeling. I still needed some sleep, though, because it had been a long week and sleeping with 16 or so electrodes attached is never really restful, I napped, and now I feel great.

3. The "Mo's Bacon Bar" from Vosges Haut Chocolat is incredibly good! Really. Sorta like a salt and chocolate bar. Check the site, by the way, they have flying bacon-flavored pigs.

So I looked at Amazon and saw this:

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Mo's Bacon Bar by Vosges

1 Used & new from $7.00

(2)

Everything Else: See all 14 items

Used and new?

4. The spell-checker wanted to change "apnea" to "grapnel."

5. From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK — Rangers forward Sean Avery was transferred out of the intensive care unit Saturday, and remained hospitalized during recovery from a lacerated spleen.

There was no immediate word when Avery would be released from the hospital, Rangers spokesman John Rosasco said. The rugged winger had been in intensive care since he was injured Tuesday night, with doctors waiting for internal bleeding to stop. That occurred Thursday.

Lacerated spleen! Ow.

6. I have four SCA items, and four music/science fiction posts, so I am going to break things up.


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Saturday afternoon: SCA-style

1. The following item popped up on a local list, and I knew it made alethea_eastrid squee:

Jenny Tiramani, the editor of the new Janet Arnold book:

Patterns of Fashion Volume 4 ; The cut and construction of linen shirts, smocks, neckwear, headwear & accessories for men and women  c.1540-1660.

The publisher is Macmillan and the publication date is 7th November 2008. I think it will be on Amazon for pre-orders soon.

2. I have a lot of thoughts about the Lyceum Tigris proposal. It seems that albreda and I are the only ones posting that the “Q-and-A” Journal, with one comment from rufinia.

[Note: If you have a real life and have not been following this car wreck every step of the way, there are two posts in sca that will help.]

Anyway, I wasn’t gonna post much about it today, but I was reading www.sportsjournalists.com, and a sports editor was bemoaning the fact that his editor had pulled a blog post and that his readers didn’t get it.

This is a response to that post, and I think it’s amazingly on-target for the Lyceum situation.

It's always good to keep in mind that the instant you have written something, anything, and have put it out for public consumption, your control over what it means has ended - the writer is not the dictator of meaning - that is for the readers to decide.  You can disagree with their conclusions but you can't dispute them.  If they come to a conclusion you disagree with, it may be because they're stupid, but it may also be because you have not written clearly enough to lead them to the conclusion you intended.

3. If you want to see the non-answer to may question about who is proposing this idea, please go here.

4. Heather Dale, who was absolutely fantastic singing at Pennsic last year (and in the past), has a new album -- The Gabriel Hounds . Thanks to eveglass for that link.

Saturday afternoon -- Books and music

1. You may be aware that alethea_eastrid and I are huge Great Big Sea fans. The band has a new album coming out in June, and I thought this article was really interesting:

I also loved the reference to the Carrie Underwood song in this sentenced about the first single planned from the album -- "Walking on the Moon."

As for the single, it was written years before the band decided to go in new directions - whipped up by Doyle with help from long-time friend and fellow Maritimer Gordie Sampson. (Sampson, incidentally, just scooped up a Grammy for co-writing Carrie Underwood's crossover hit, "Jesus Take the Wheel.")

2. Sometimes, I know more about science fiction written in the past rather than what's hot now. Maybe I should read Locus Magazine more often.

3. Oh, to have John Scalzi's  problems.

I’m getting a fair number of invitations to write for short story anthologies these days, which is very gratifying to the ego. But I’ve plotted out my writing obligations for the next year (actually 15 months) and what I’ve discovered is that I actually have absolutely no more bandwidth. If I try to jam any additional short fiction work into the work I’ve already committed to (novels, non-fiction books, commissioned short work, editing gigs and a couple of personal projects none of you will know about until they happen, if they happen at all), something might snap, and I’m afraid that the thing that might snap is my sanity.

So: I am not accepting any anthology invitations through July 2009. If you’re editing an anthology whose stories are due between now and July 2009, you can skip asking me to participate, because the answer will be “no.” The exception to this would be reprint anthologies, i.e., anthologies where I’m not required to do any additional work. But as for original work: Sorry, can’t. Thanks for thinking of me, though. Please note this does not mean I don’t have some short fiction planned between now and July 2009; I do, and it’s on the schedule, as noted. I just can’t add any more.

This bums me out a little because some of the anthologies I’ve been invited to are really cool. But I’d rather say no than say yes, and then, by dint of lack of bandwidth, turn in something sucktastical. There are limits to my hackery, and I think we can all be grateful for that.

I will chime in on the sadness of it all, too . . .

Associated Press News Alert

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Filly Eight Belles finished second behind favorite Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, then collapsed with two broken front ankles and was euthanized after crossing the wire.


The field of 20 horses was galloping out around the first turn at Churchill Downs when Eight Belles suddenly went down on both front legs and jockey Gabriel Saez slid off.


An equine ambulance reached her on the track and put Eight Belles down.


"There was no possible way to save her," on-call veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage said. "She broke both front ankles. That's a bad injury."


I feel really badly for her owners. From the top of the world to despair in a minute or two.