Ryan Call—
Just a friendly reminder to backup your stuff; the computer is okay now, but it was frozen and making the weirdest clicking sounds just a few minutes ago.
22
Do You Research?
I’m working on another ‘weather story’ and found this video of a wind turbine self-destructing. I believe, based on what little I’ve read, this can happen in storm conditions if the brakes in the turbine fail.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3FZtmlHwcA
I can’t remember if we’ve talked about ‘research’ here (so sorry if this is an old topic), but I just wanted to type out a few notes on research and my research habits.
Hot Dog
How much my life has changed, and yet how unchanged it has remained at bottom! When I think back and recall the time when I was still a member of the canine community, sharing in all its preoccupations, a dog among dogs, I find on closer examination that from the very beginning I sensed some discrepancy, some little maladjustment, causing a slight feeling of discomfort which not even the most decorous public functions could eliminate; more, that sometimes, no, not sometimes, but very often, the mere look of some fellow dog of my own circle that I was fond of, the mere look of him, as if I had just caught it for the first time, would fill me with helpless embarrassment and fear, even with despair.
first few lines of “Investigations of a Dog” by Franz Kafka (translated by Willa and Edwin Muir)
Holiday In Cambodia: Call for Submissions/Donations
From Christopher Heavener of Annalemma comes this call for submissions (deadline: Jan 15th) and donations to a project that seeks to support the work of Anne Elizabeth Moore, who works with Cambodian women, teaching them how to make zines. Here’s word of the anthology/donation drive direct from Chris:
In the winter of 2007 editor, author, and activist Anne Elizabeth Moore was invited to live to Phnom Penh to teach Cambodian young women how to make zines. She plans to return December 24th to continue her ongoing project. We think this is awesome. We want to help her out and hope you do too.
Uncategorized / 1 Comment
January 11th, 2010 / 2:00 pm
January 11th, 2010 / 2:00 pm
Doomed Goals/Projects/Resolutions?
With the 2010 a few hours away, I’ve decided to post some of my doomed goals/projects/resolutions for the coming year. These are things that I’ll probably try to achieve for a few weeks in January, then I’ll forget about them as the more important aspects of my life churn through the waning giddiness of the New Year. Feel free to share your own for 2010. I’m really interested to hear about what goals HTMLGIANT readers set for themselves aside from the standard ‘I will finish a manuscript this year’ sorts of goals and whether or not you’re able to follow through. Sometimes I follow through, most of the time I don’t. Enjoy.
How It’s Made: Chains
This thing on chains is my favorite How It’s Made segment.
Headache?
I had a headache the other day (hangover?) and remembered this video that got emailed around my program a few years ago: Rip Torn hitting Norman Mailer in the head with a hammer on the set of Maidstone. Read the comments of the poster for more info? If you haven’t seen it, then I hope you like it. If you have seen it, then I hope you enjoy it again.
Center for the Art of Translation Contest
The Center for the Art of Translation is running a donation/giveaway contest through Jan. 11th of 2010. Here are details:
Give $5 or more to the Center between now and Jan 11, 2010, and you’ll be entered into a drawing for books featuring Lit&Lunch translators, as well as Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed. It just takes a minute to donate online.
First prize is a three-book package featuring two of this year’s most exciting translators:Natasha Wimmer and Breon Mitchell. The winner receives translator-signed copies of Roberto Bolano’s 2666 and Gunter Grass’s The Tin Drum, plus a copy of the newest Two Lines anthology, Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed.
Two runners-up will each receive a translator-signed copy of The Tin Drum and a copy ofWherever I Lie Is Your Bed.
Every donation really counts, which is why we brought the threshold for this giveaway to just $5. Those who pledge $20 or more will get 3 chances to win, and those who sign up for a recurring donation totaling $50 or more over the course of next year will have 5 chances to win these excellent books.
Thousands Already Sold
Thousands of what, you ask? Thousands of TweetBookz.
That’s right. It’s exactly what it sounds like.
From the about page:
Our concept for TweetBookz is to bring content as short-lengthed and short-lived as tweets to the “serious” world of books.
($30 a hardcover and $20 a paperback)
The FAQ page is even better:
Is there a minimum number of tweets I need to have? How small can the books be?
You need at least one tweet that we can print and books are printed with a minimum of 20 pages (holding 40 tweets). If you have fewer than 40 tweets we will fill in the rest with nicely designed blank pages.
Shouldn’t that say “nicely designed” blank pages?