Tales of the Trickster

Vocabulary: Cepaceous

Cepaceous (ce·pa·ceous) (adjective) - like an onion.

More Banned Books Week 411

Banned Books Week isn't over yet.  Here's just some quickie info for all of you out there, in no particular order:

Amnesty International and Banned Books Week

ALA TechSource

Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Celebrates BBW

Amazon.com's Forbidden Library

Dixie State College List of Banned Books

Article from International Herald Tribune, November 14, 2006

The Book Standard Timeline of Banned Books

Confessional

Alright.  I have a confession.  If what they say about confession being good for the soul is true, I may as well get this off my chest.  See, I was on the reference desk this morning, and it was a pretty slow morning.  Real quiet like, not a lot of kids asking me to do their work for them, as is often the case.  So I decided to kill some time by being naughty.  I pulled out issue #1 of Doktor Sleepless by Warren Ellis.  Anyone who has read more than five entries into my blog knows that Ellis is the author I'm currently obsessed with.  You know how you find a new author and you just have to go back and read as much as you can by him or her because it's like a new crush?  Yeah, Ellis is mine.

Now, here's the thing.  I always thought a lot of his fans were a little weird.  I mean, they call him Internet  Jesus for goodness sakes.  I always thought "look, I like the guy, but y'all should get out more is all I'm sayin'."  Now, after reading Doktor Sleepless, I'm kinda getting it.  I'm not going to start a cult or anything, and I still think a lot of his fans are a blue crayon short of a Crayola box, but I gotta say, he's charismatic as hell.  His ability to play with words is truly a gift. And, being a comic book writer, he's amazingly good at writing for a visual medium.  So here's my confession:

I'm a little bit in love with Warren Ellis' brain.

I'm a little bit disturbed by this.

In any case, read Doktor Sleepless.  Read Crooked Little Vein.  Read Fell.  And if you can get through those without becoming totally warped, you might actually understand why I'd like to be a little bit like him when I grow up.

Next Experiment: Digg

Okay, so Technorati is pretty much a crash and burn.  Next thing I'll be trying out in my quest for cool-but-kinda-pointless internet blogging technology is Digg.  This looks more fun anyway.  Sort of like the American Idol of the blogging world.  Find out more here.  It sounds like a fun idea, and one I wouldn't mind tinkering with.  I first discovered it through Pink Raygun, along with StumbleUpon.  I tried StumbleUpon this weekend, but that didn't work out so well because I had to download this software, and my poor computer is just too damn old and out of shape to handle it.  Everytime I started a search, it would complain about it.  Then I'd try to search for something while on Second Life, and I could actually hear my computer wheezing.  It wasn't pretty.  I so need a Mac. 

But that's beside the point.  We're talking about Digg here.

I'm still trying to figure out how to configure my blog so that I could use those cute little Digg buttons, but I'm having some trouble.  I like buttons.  Buttons are shiny and go all clicky clicky.  Right now though, all I can manage are the Digg tags at the bottom of every post where all the catagory info is.  Booooring.  Still, feel free to play around with Digg too.  It's kinda neat, and a good way to kill five minutes or so.

Technoruseless and BBW

Well, that was a short-lived experiment.  I've officially decided that Technorati is useless.  In the few days I've been using it, I've gotten nothing but problems.  My blog won't ping, the authority count is wrong (and also won't update), the search function doesn't work, and my indexing is all out of order.  Apparently I'm not the only one with this problem, as their customer service consists of asking a question on their "help" site blog, then waiting around for no one to answer it.  There are endless lists of people crying for help, but with no replies other than other people going "yeah, me too"  Completely pointless internet "tool," and I don't see what the big deal is.

In other news, today is the first day of Banned Books Week.  I highly encourage all of you to read a banned book, donate to the ALA or CBLDF, read something vulgar and/or filthy, or find some creative way to give the middle finger to the Thought Police.  Go ahead.  It'll make you feel better.

Why is This Still Happening?

I get so frustrated every time I'm reminded that this still goes on.

Voices Rise in Egypt to Shield Girls From an Old Tradition from The New York Times, September 20, 2007

Technorwhatzit Now?

I started this blog as an experiment.  I wasn't even sure if I'd keep up with it or not.  I really just wanted to see what would happen.  Now, a few months into it, I find I kinda like it.  It's fun.  So in the that same spirit of "I wonder what happens when I push this button," I decided to give Technorati a shot, even though I'm not 100% clear as to what Technorati is supposed to do.  I'm still working out the kinks and bugs, but I added a widget onto the blog, just to see where it goes.  Maybe somewhere, maybe nowhere.  Still, the more I get involved in this Web 2.0 nonsense, the more I feel like Johnny Mnemonic.  (A highly underrated movie, I feel.)  I'm just waiting for my virtual hacker gloves and goggles.  I still wish I knew code.

Still Kinda Early for Banned Books Week

What's wrong with these book thieves?  Come on people, help me out here.  Can't you save all of your raging dumassery until next week?  I mean, hel-lo?  Banned Books Week doesn't start until September 24!  Get your ignorant asses together!  If you use up all your stupidity now, I'll have nothing to talk about next week!

So who's on my shitlist today?  JoAn Karkos, of Lewiston, Maine.  Seems that sex education is pornography in her eyes, so she's taken it upon herself to steal It's Perfectly Normal by Robbie H. Harris off the shelves of the Lewiston Public Library and the Auburn Public Library.  Faaaaantastic.  You can read her letter to the editor here.  I love that line "library sophisticates."  That's good.  Like we're all drinking tea with our pinkies in the air while we twirl our waxed mustaches and plot the demise of America's youth.  "No no, I cannot be bothered making an informed decision as to what goes on the shelf.  A masters degree?  Good lord man, what on earth is that?  No, let's ignore years of collection development training and find the first thing that will warp the minds of our youngsters forever!  MWA HA HA HA HA!  Good show, now lets go feed the christians in the dungeon to some hungry lions."  I'm not sure I've ever been sophisticated a day in my life, so I'm perfectly fine with giving this twit the finger. 

Some people risk their jobs, reputations--even their very lives to save books from destruction by the Thought Police.  People much braver and nobler than I could ever hope to be. And yet here is this bonehead, taking her freedom to be a bonehead for granted.  What a flake.

Super Sneaky Retcon

Maybe not so sneaky, since I'm telling y'all about it.  Anyway, I started a side blog about the same time I started this one, and it was dedicated to book reviews.  Some I did for Pink Raygun, but some I did just for fun.  Sadly, my attention span was way to short to keep up with it, and there's really no point in having a side blog if I don't keep up with it, so I'm using the super cool tools that Typepad lets me play with in order to do a super sneaky "I always meant to do it this way" retcon on my blog.  Basically, I'm merging the two blogs into one.  It may get messy around here though. I apologize in advance if things get weird.

Robert Jordan October 17, 1948 – September 16, 2007

Just got the news first thing this morning.  Paris, the guy who got me into reading the Wheel of Time series, is really broken up about it.  I have to say, I'm pretty bummed.  It's a blow to the fantasy lit community, that's for sure.  I mean, I read his books into many a late night, nights when I should have been sleeping, studying, or doing any number of sensible, responsible things.  Those books were like an addiction to me.  And seriously, how many geek girls wrestled with the question of which ajah they would be a part of, should they magically be transpoted into WOT world?  (Brown ajah for Trickster Sedai, thank you very much.  No surprise there.)  Shit, and now I'll never get to read the ending of that series.  Damn.

My sympathies go out to the family of Robert Jordan.  He gave us all a great gift with his writing.