As I often do during my day, I checked my Google Reader to see what was going on with my favorite blogs. Tech-Ex included an entry with the heading “Hackers Break into Palin’s Yahoo! Email.”

In case you can’t read it, the post says:

That was enough to send me to Tech-Ex and read more.

Strange. The page is missing, but was yet to be deleted from Google Reader. I decided to click on the link within the Google Reader entry for the Wikileaks info.

Similar to as reported in the Tech-Ex entry, Wikileaks is still unresponsive. I got the same results after attempting to reload the page several times. I also go the same results when I tried to load the main Wikileaks page.

I’m not saying she nor the Republican Party had anything to do with this, but what the hell?

And for those who can’t read the final bit of small type at the end of the first image, here’s what else Tech-Ex had to say:

Be sure to check out the Wired article while you still can!

Some Palin weirdness was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

How cool is this…

Snapshot of a planet beyond the solar system was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

It’s sad when what you know-to-be-true is painfully documented in an lengthy, well-written article from a prestigious magazine.

Since my Mojo Press days in the mid-1990s, I’ve argued that the entire dinosaur-like publishing industry needed to change or be eaten alive by the newer mammalian media. I’m not saying that books will disappear, just the major publishers with their archaic methods.

I’ve long been concerned that Amazon will simultaneously save the industry and destroy it. Now others agree…

This anonymous quote near the end of the article sums up my long-running feelings over publisher reactions to the changing world.

It does seem to be an industry bent on suicide. Possible solutions exist out there, but will only happen if the authors, publishers, and booksellers work together and stop pointing fingers of blame. I’m tired of hearing how things use to be and how bad they are now. The “good old days” of publishing are gone and ain’t coming back. It’s time to re-invent the wheel, to figure the new publishing dynamic.

With “The End,” New York writer Boris Kachka produced an excellent eulogy to the way things use to be.

(Thanks to Mark London Williams for the link.)

The End? was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Enjoying Naptime ]
The Wall is a picture book that documents what is what like to grow up in communist Czechoslovakia. No you might think that this is not the topic for a picture book, but let me tell you it works. Author/illustrator’s drawings of communist Czechoslovakia are in black and white, with the communist symbols of a red scarf and red flag were red. Contrasted to this are Peter’s childhood drawings that are in colour. Interspersed in the narrative are entries from Peter’s diaries and journals.

This is a very good book. It is easy to see why it was nominated for a Caldecott by the ALA.

[  Mood: Amused ]
This mystery sees Kinsey investigating an acident. Bobby Callahan’s Porsche was pushed off the road by a hit and run driver. Bobby was lucky to survive, but has been perminantly disabled by the tragedy. Having met Bobby at the gym, Kinsey sees him as more than a client. She gets emotionally involved, so much so much so that when he is killed, she continues to investigate to find out who is behind his murder.

Woven through this mystery is the beginnings of author Sue Grafton’s development of Kinsey’s world. Landlord Henry has a mysterious (and not very nice) new girlfriend. Kinsey, along with resterant owner Rosie set about to find out what is going on.

A well done story full of twists and turns, as well as real character development. This is where the series begins to come into its own. Worth the read.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Enjoying Naptime ]
Temeraire, Laurence and his crew have returned from China to find that the British dragons have come down with a cough. Unfortunately chicken soup doesn’t fix this cough. Rather, it is quickly causing the mass extinction of Britain’s arial corps.

Temeraire and Laurence are dispatched to Africa in search of a cure. While there, they learn about African society and how Dragons fit into it. In addition, Laurence and Temeraire are faced with a horrible decision between loyalty and the good of dragonkind.

This was a much better read tean the previous Temeraire book. Laurence’s devotion to the Celestial is heartwarming. Temeraire’s naivete in the face of cruelty and politics is still refreshing. This series had kept it fresh and is worth the read.

My review of the latest Coen Bros film, Burn After Reading, appears at Moving Pictures.

Burn After Reading review was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Neutral ]
[  Currently: Working a job I like a lot… ]

This week has seen my wife and I moved into a house we’ll be renting for six months before we buy it and live there a long time. That’s the good in a nutshell.

In the past three days, we’ve seen our black and white cat (my wife’s for six years before I met her, and mine since then–what can I say? The cat chose me) grow lethargic, lose her appetite, more details I will withhold, but if you’ve had a pet get sick, you have an idea what I may be going through without me providing details.

This silky-coated cat stole my heart from the day we met. She stalked me in her one bedroom apartment, sneaking up on me and glaring, then freezing in place with her eyes glued to me when I happened to notice her. She froze, looking daggers at me, saying with her huge, yellow-rimmed black eyes, "You can’t see me. I’m standing still. Go about your business. I’ll continue stalking you momentarily." It never failed to bring me to teary laughter.

She liked to get onto whatever furniture might have a book, remote control, or magazine left on it–especially on an arm–so she could poke it with a paw until it dropped off to crash onto the floor. At this point, as if she had no clue what would happen, she’d look wide-eyed at the nearest human, "Did you drop that? Did you know it was going to hit the floor so hard? You really shouldn’t leave things on the arms of chairs, you know." My wife has never been enamored of this behavior, as it saw a signed Ray Bradbury novel dropped into a bathtub once…

My kitty has five favorite things.

First, hiding under covers. She’s a spelunker. The darker the hole leading under the blankets, the better. Finding a lump under the conforter when I entered the bedroom? Hilarious.

Second, the sun. Preferably the hottest afternoon sun available, through the thinnest glass window, so more heat could be absorbed by the black in her coat.

Third, her toy. One of those "gone fishin’" contraptions made by Hartz. Hers has no bell–a popular feature on the newer models. Hers need only the rod and a long string, with a ribbon tied to the end. That ribbon has been through hell, mainly at her paws and teeth. She’ll attack it with the ferocity of a starved panther. She’ll drag it around in her mouth if she feels ignored.

Fourth, sleeping above my head in the bed, preferably on my pajamas.

Last, she loves licking the salty sweat off my forehead. Evidence here.

Now she’s facing a bug that her veterinarian can’t seem to pin down, at a time when my wife and I have no fiscal space to play with in our budget, and my dear, sweet kitty is in pain and I am depressed and sad and confused.

UPDATE: Word from home is, kitty seems to be acting herself again. Perhaps the bug is turning from the antibiotics we’ve administered in the past few days.

[  Mood: Shocked ]
Was on the Facebook checking up on the world. I am friends with an ex-boyfriend. (Against my schorched earth policy, I know, but I am trying to be a better person.) He has changed his profile picture. Now he is wearing a loincloth.

Did I really need to see that?

I think my answer is no.

“I’m crazy about movies. It’s why I became an actor. I could cry watching C.H.U.D. (Cannibal Humanoid Underground Dwellers). I buy into movies. I love it.“ — Robert Downey, Jr., "I Am Iron Man”, a behind-the-scenes documentary from the Iron Man DVD.

Robert Downey Jr Quote was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon