Friday’s Linkage
Two new articles from me this week:
- Associated Content >> What It’s like to Stutter
- This is actually really personal, about “what it’s like to stutter,” and how I’ve g-g-g-otten by. The response has been so positive I’m wondering if just spilling my guts and standing ass-naked to the world is the only way to write.
- Nexterday News >> November 2nd, 2085 - Groundbreaking Inter-species Contract Signed
- Deer and man enter into an agreement: we’ll stop the hunting if they stop hitting our cars. Is it really that easy? Something tells me there might be more to this story from 2085 than what they’re telling us here in 2008.
And then, there’s my del.icio.us links:
- 10 Reasons I’d Rather Marry a Robot
- John Connor better read this if I ever write my creepy fan fic.
- China ‘will stop the rain’ for Olympics
- Weather manipulation? That’s scary.
- Pictures From Mercury Surprise Scientists - washingtonpost.com
- One day I hope to vacation on Mercury and go cliff diving on their large cliffs.
- Extinct Animals, From an Elephant Bird to a 10-Foot-Long, Four-Eyed Spider
- The best are #2 and #7. I’m glad I’m not 290 million years old, else I’d be crazy from trying to avoid those things.
- ‘Last’ man creates different world on ‘Lost’ - CNN.com
- If a magic genie (as opposed to the regular kind) came up to me and said, “Hey, Adam, switch careers with this guy,” I’d say “well, allright,” and cry myself to sleep in happiness every night.
- EBay Lowers Listing Fees & Increases Commission to Boost Sales
- Erhm…. so long, eBay. Craigslist it is.
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Links & Digital Happenings, 1-25-08
As usual, I have some links to share brought to you by the bookmarking site, del.icio.us. See, when I go to a site that I like, I can click a button on my browser and it opens a window where I can type a little commentary and it saves the link. Then, at the end of the week, I export those links out and post them all here for you to enjoy.
I also have a new Nexterday News article up, a link to which you should find to your right, under where it says “Nexterday News.” Newer articles are always listed first, so, it’s a safe bet the one on the top is new. Just sayin’.
My goal is to write one story a week for that site. I have 5 in the pipeline as of right now so I think that’s do-able. But what does a guy gotta do to get some feedback on ‘em? Right now I’m commenting on my own news stories (though I’m using a pen name, so only those astute detectives should be able to figure that out).
Also, the link is right here:
- August 2nd, 2026 - ‘Seinfeld’ Remake Announced as Only Scripted Fall TV Show
- I wrote this. It’s a follow-up story to the WGA strike resolution coverage of 2026.
- Clive Thompson on Why Sci-Fi Is the Last Bastion of Philosophical Writing
- “Science fiction is the last great literature of ideas,” he says. I know nobody likes a link to a heavy article, so I apologize for wasting your time with this link.
- Scary movie Cloverfield making viewers sick - CNN.com
- Bring your dramamine… I wish I did.
- Dr. Laura’s Blog » Heath Ledger and Tragic Death
- Once again, she’s got a point. Also, second to last paragraph…. isn’t that supposed to be hoo-RAH? I’m no marine, but I think so.
- Alt Text: Tiptoeing Through the Minefield of Movie Spoilers
- An etiquette for posting spoilers. Excellent. Spread this around.
- Autopsy planned as actor Heath Ledger is mourned - CNN.com
- He said that the Joker kept him up at night. Prescription sleep pills are the suspected cause of death. Did the Joker kill Heath?
- Office Fantasy Video - Jake And Amir Dot Com
- Their best video yet. If you don’t know them, this might not be as funny. But it’s still funny. So funny.
- Little Black Girl & President Bush - The Daily Dish
- You don’t have to read anything if you click this link… it’s a picture, and that’s all it really needs to be.
Delicious Links for 1-18-08 (and some original stuff, too).
Two new articles from me this week!
The first one marks the first time since college I’ve been paid for something I wrote. Who pays? Not sure. It has something to do with cost-per-click, advertising, etc., but I got $3.33 up front for it, just to have it published, so that counts for something.
- Why I Don’t Wash My Hands - Associated Content
- It’s an editorial on germs and how people freak out about them. The more people who read it, the more I get paid.
The second article is for Nexterday News, which I spoke about last week… it’s the news service with a wire to the Associated Press of the future. This week’s article…
- November 5th, 2072 – Toyota to Inaugurate First Robotic US President
- “This can’t possibly go wrong,” says standing President.
- *****
- And now, other links I found interesting this week, brought to you by the social bookmarking site, del.icio.us.
- Dr. Phil investigated by psychology board
- “Dr. Phil” may have been a good doctor at one point, but now he’s just an ass.
- Dr. Laura’s Blog » Happiness is NOT the Highest Value
- I used to love Dr. Laura before I grew a brain of my own. The first part of this article kind of irritated me but by the end I at least saw her point and kind of agreed with her.
- Matthew McConaughey: I’m Going To Be a Dad
- “God bless evolution,” he says. Perhaps the wittiest, smartest thing ever said.
- Charlize, Viggo Travel Cormac McCarthy’s Road
- I’ve been meaning to pick up this book for a while now. I guess I should hurry up before this summer when it gets the famous “NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING CHARLIZE THERON!” cover makeover.
- Kevin Federline: Our Problems Make People Feel Normal
- Actually, he’s got a point.
- Will Smith Recruits for Scientology
- The last paragraph of this article sums it up for me: “I am not sure I totally believe this, mostly because I don’t WANT to believe it.”
- Near-final Vista SP1 goes public
- Microsoft is actually telling people not to install Vista Service Pack 1 on “mission critical” machines. Meaning: if you don’t have data to lose, don’t install it, because they have no idea if it’ll mess up your shit.
- Found: Artifacts From the Future
- Holy crap-o! Look at this windshield from the future.
- A company promises 100 mile-per-gallon engine
- I guess people were right about the Hybrid not being the answer. I guess Ill go for one of these when the time comes.
- July 18th, 2026 - Original Programming Makes a Comeback
- In case you missed the link last week, this is my first Nexterday article.
Nexterday News
I wrote an article for Nexterday News, the news service that bends time and reports on events in the future.
My story? The WGA/AMPTP strike is finally over, and original programming makes a comeback. The story is from the year 2026.
Props to Tom and Aaron for hooking that shit up.
EDIT: My pen name on the site is Toshiba Davids. Because in the future, we’ll all sell our names to corporations.
McDreamy
Sometimes whatever muscle is in my right temple twitches so hard, so suddenly, that I think somebody/something is hitting me, so I flinch. It sucks.
I had some strange dreams yesterday, son. In the first one, I wasn’t with Katy and had never been, and had never been with anyone since high school. I figured I needed to get with somebody quick. I wasn’t gay, but for some reason I decided to propose to a guy at the post office. I bought the ring and everything. I went to go “pop the question” one day when he was on duty, but he had the day off! So I gave serious thought to just asking his co-worker who worked at the register to marry me. Ultimately, neither happened, because I turned around and saw a homeless girl sitting in the parking lot, crying. I decided to help her and took her home and cleaned her up and gave her food, etc. Turned out she was a superhero who had her memory wiped by an arch villian! Who knew!? It was the Black Canary.
Don’t ask me, it was just a dream!
*****
Subject changes in my blog are indicted by *****. I will try not to change the subject too much.
*****
When I talk about things in my blog it means I want to talk about them! Especially if you have differing views or opinions. Debate is good!
*****
The WGA strike is still happening. Apparently the WGA and the AMPTP (the suits) had a negotiation session last week where the AMPTP tried to negotiate that the writers would “continue to recieve nothing for residual internet downloads.” How that’s negotiating, I’m not sure. Anyway, the WGA (rightfully so) said “no, thanks,” and went back on strike.
In the past few weeks, a campaign has started up where people can send pencils to the “media moguls” to show their support for the writers. The idea is that the AMPTP’s offices will get flooded with pencils. Something similar was done after the announced cancellation of the TV show “Jericho,” when fans sent loads of peanuts to the exeutives and convinced them that the show was worth keeping (or at least giving a second chance).
To make it easy, UnitedHollywood.com has set up a PayPal script where, for a dollar, you can buy a 12-pack of pencils and they’ll ship it on your behalf. After they set this up, pencils by the truckload (seriously) were showing up at the AMPTP’s door.
What’s cool about this is that, after the negotiations broke down last week, some show runners started offering incentives for people to buy the pencils. Go here for a list of some of those incentives, including a phone call from Damon Lindelof and Carleton Cuse of Lost, a call from Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor), etc!
I also think I read somewhere that the extra money will go toward a benefit fund for the less-thought-of crew members (like Key Grips) out of work.
*****
*****
Buy!
Millennium (a book)
Well, if you read my Twitter you’ll know that I was late in getting home from work because I was so caught up in a book. It’s not a new book, in fact, it was published in 1983 (the year I was born, dingos)! I came across it through a forum about Lost (the tv show), where some guy was claiming this book had all the answers.
Don’t get me wrong: I did not read this book thinking it had anything to do with Lost, in fact, while reading it, I totally forgot about any connection with Lost. It’s just that the summary he gave made it seem like a really great sci-fi book. And it is!
The Lost connection the poster was talking about was the mystery of how the survivors of Flight 815 were “found” in the wreckage, when, how could that be?, they’re on the island.
Well, in this book, time travelers from a future human society where we’re all infertile and dying thanks to no less than nineteen nuclear wars come up with a plan to “snatch” people from the past in order to create a utopian society so that humanity can somehow survive. Anybody who knows anything about time travel knows that if you go messing up people’s lives in the past, that means bad shit for the future, because if some shit doesn’t go down that was supposed to, how in the fuck is someone gonna go back in time in the first place and mess shit up all over again?
Paradox, is what they call that.
Example: I go back in time and stay the fuck outta the way. Some ho ass trips me, and I trip someone else by mistake. “Bitch ass,” the person says, carrying about their day. No harm done, right? Well, those three seconds that retard called me a bitch ass, is one second late he’ll be in stepping into the Apple store. In those three seconds, a customer has asked for the last iPhone when in fact, that whole reason the guy went to the mall was to get an iPhone and he was in a hurry, and originally he was supposed to get one but now he doesn’t. So he’s mad. The thing is: the guy is nuts and pulls out a gun and blows everyone up. As it turns out, I only went back two days in the past in order to stop myself from buying a cookie. The guy shoots my past-self. I no longer exist so, two days later, cannot go back in time to accidentally trip the guy. Are you confused? You should be; the universe is, too. That’s why it’ll explode if it happens.
Okay, that’s a bad example, but you get the point: don’t go messing up shit that’s happened.
So, to get around that, the people manufacture “used” bodies and put them in place of people right before their impending doom. Terrorist attacks, boating accidents, etcetera. The book focuses on a particular plane crash when they got a little sloppy and left something behind. After the crash, the investigator finds this artifact and digs a little deeper. One of the things he finds in the plane’s black box was a transcript of one of the flight attendant’s yelling: “They’re burned! All the passengers are dead and burned!” Then, the plane crashes.
So shit hits the fan, and the story unfolds from there. If you want to know more you should read it, it’s good. You can borrow it.
[spolierzz] About a third of the way though I started getting my own ideas for a similar story. I had it all mapped out and good surprises and everything. Then I read the last quarter of the book and exactly the same thing happened. Adam = bummed out. I always wanted to write a story where, at the end, the two survivors of some MASSIVE disaster that wipes out all of humanity realize that they are Adam and Eve. Well, that’s what happens.
“It’s all been dooonneee….. before…….”
