Wickedlibrarian's Stuff

Stuff I'm reading.

nobody@vox.com(wickedlibrarian) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:26:14 -0600

It takes me for-freakin-ever to read nonfiction. Not sure why I can fly through fiction but nonfiction takes me at least three times as long to read. Am I paying more attention or something?

Anyway, right now I'm making my way through Moab Is My Washpot, which is Stephen Fry's autobiography. The

Moab Is My Washpot

Stephen Fry

wonderful thing is that he did write it himself and it's completely in his "voice" so it's rather like sitting across from him as he tells you the silly tales of his childhood and school years. I always wonder how people can remember their earlier years with such detail. I certainly remember "scenes" but if pressed I doubt I could put them into an actual factual timeline. It's just as well since I doubt anyone would want to read my life story anyway. Although I did have a damn fun childhood.

Bad Science

Ben Goldacre

I'm also plowing (slowly, slowly) my way through Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. I say "plowing" only because I read so dreadfully slow, not because the content is laborious. If anything, Goldacre makes what might be snore-worthy and makes it fun and interesting.

This is a book that has been known in the Skeptical community as a must-read... along with Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy, and Simon Singh's Trick Or Treatment. It reveals what commonly-held beliefs are misplaced and generally teaches you to question what often sounds too good to be true.

What makes reading both of these books even more fun is both of the authors are also on Twitter so I'm "getting to know" them both through their writing and through their day-to-day twitterings as well.

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How To Debate A Creationist

nobody@vox.com(wickedlibrarian) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:15:49 -0600

Helpful/useful information for us all.

Available free for one week via Skeptic's Society!

Go! Print! Read!

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You need some more Tim Minchin, you say?

nobody@vox.com(wickedlibrarian) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:44:31 -0600

I sympathize.

Recently he appeared on a new episode of England's "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" - a sort of panel "game show" that is less about points and winning anything and more about acting silly. Which Tim is good at doing, in his disarmingly charming way.

Here's a clip -

Never Mind The Buzzcocks - Shingai Shoniwa and Noel try a new look for the intro's round - BBC Two

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All right, so I gave up.

nobody@vox.com(wickedlibrarian) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:53:38 -0600

I don't like admitting it (who does?) but I'm not feelin' the NaNoWriMo this year. I know, I know. I'm supposed to "just keep writing anyway". It's the exercise in making yourself write, not necessarily the story that comes out of it. I know this and yet, I've just decided not to do it this year.

I will, however, fiddle around with this story idea a bit more, here and there. I think there's something to it (and hey, I DO have an ending for it!) and maybe it's more that I think it deserves more time/effort than a violent 30-day writing gorge can give it. Or, that's a hoity-toity excuse.

I do feel shame, and I do feel guilt. I read the cheering-on emails I get from Chris Baty and others and for a moment or two I think, hey, I'm only a week behind. Maybe....?

And then I think, don't be silly.

And then I think... well.... ..... maybe?

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QotD: My Favorite Apps

nobody@vox.com(wickedlibrarian) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:58:04 -0600

What are your favorite web or mobile apps? Which ones do you use everyday?

Sponsored by Yahoo!

I'd be lost without my Tweetie.

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This is already puttering.

nobody@vox.com(wickedlibrarian) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:44:28 -0600

I've made the mistake of writing the "end" of my NaNoWriMo story.

It was in my head, and I was excited, because I'd actually come up with an ending. Which I didn't start out with - so you can imagine my pleasure. This freak of a story which I'd embarked upon without any knowledge of the characters or the world they live in (or, rather, die in, since I've already killed off half the cast) was just sort of flopping along, without any arms or legs, and while I pitied it, I kept on writing.

And then last night while at the gym (it's annoyingly cliche that my brain really DOES work better during exercise) I struck upon how this monster would actually end. So I rushed home and wrote it, while it was still all pink and fresh and gleaming.

And now I feel like I'm done. I know I'm not; I mean, there's a whole lot of middle-stuff that I haven't even considered yet. Step one, character. Step two, ?? Step three, result! It's the Underpants Gnomes of stories. I'm finding it incredibly hard to care about the middle stuff though. My brain has convinved itself that it's finished this story, and it wants to move on to the next one.

I sense the rest of this month of writing is going to be very painful.

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It's getting near to NaNoWriMo again!

nobody@vox.com(wickedlibrarian) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:12:46 -0500

So guess what? My Minchin-heavy blog will soon be filled with my so-entertaining moanings about writing. I shall write in order to procrastinate from writing. That's brilliant, isn't it?

I haven't really got much of an idea of what I'll be attempting... I mean, I do have an idea, but there's no plot to it at all. Which might be all right - in the past, when I've had a plot in mind, the characters just sort of went off on their own anyway and completely ignored my wishes. Rampant, they ran. I have no control. It's a damn good thing I'm not a parent if I can't even keep track of my imaginary people.

SO, you've been warned. I think that's rather nice of me, don't you?

Oh and also, if you want to join in, please do visit nanowrimo.org and sign up. It's crazy-fun.

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Watch Tim on Wossy!

nobody@vox.com(wickedlibrarian) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:00:14 -0500

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross airs in the United States on 30 Oct 2009 on BBC America.

BUT, if by chance you don't get BBC America (shame on you) here's the interview:

(HQ) Tim Minchin on Jonathan Ross 2009.10.23 (Part 2)

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Big night for Mr Tim Minchin!

nobody@vox.com(wickedlibrarian) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:00:54 -0500

He appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and sang this hilarious song:

Tim Minchin - 5 Poofs and 2 Piano's - (HD SOUND)

And he also had the first of his three sold-out gigs at London's Hammersmith-Apollo (his biggest venue yet, seating 3,500), which from what I hear and read on Twitter, was a huge, gigantic, smashing success.

And finally, perhaps the icing on the cake, he trended on Twitter's top topics for a while!

Timtreding102309

Whew! Expecting a lot of new people to be trickling in over at Angry-Feet.com over the next few days.

*sniff* Our lovely Tim is famous!

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Tim Minchin on Johnathan Ross!

nobody@vox.com(wickedlibrarian) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:40:49 -0500

Set your DVRs! Tim Minchin will be on Friday Night With Johnathan Ross on BBC America on Oct. 30th!

And word is he'll be playing a NEW song on the show!

photo.jpg

(Left to right - Johnathan Ross, Jamie Cullum, Joanna Page, Tim Minchin, and Boy George)

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