Cogito, Ergo Sumana for 2009 June 15

# 15 Jun 2009, 02:41AM: Various Links: Should have been catching up on work, reread bits of Anathem and wrote instead. Let's see if I can go to sleep once I've posted this:

Erica Naone's infodumping links reminded me of an old MC Masala column of mine:

"So we just end up where we started, with cockamamie theories and broad generalizations."
"Not true," Robin said. "We're on top of the Empire State Building."
"That's not what I meant," I said, idly watching Tom Hanks swat King Kong off a ledge.

Goats Enjoy Living In Their Own Tower. Leonard and I marveled at all the varied stresses and intonations we can use to infuse different meanings into that headline. Goats, not other animals! Living, not working! Their own tower, not a rental! On it, not around it!

BitBlinder looks interesting as a partial alternative to the Tor onion router.

All-purpose stalling questions, divided by industry/topic!

I'm chewing on Danny's interesting thoughts on agency and the ease of transitioning from watcher to participant.

Search expert Matt Cutts advises journalists on how to improve their careers in the age of search.

Until Xeni Jardin posted about it in BoingBoing, I didn't realize that Tiller's clinic was one of only three in the country serving women who learned of catastrophic health issues late in pregnancy. Just another reminder that Roe v. Wade is a dead letter if, in practice, women can't get the care we need.

# (1) 15 Jun 2009, 12:04PM: Horrifying Book Title: The Fun-Minute Manager. It's real.

# (3) 15 Jun 2009, 12:26PM: In Which I Request Things Of You: So, two things I'd like to ask of my readers:

Call me out on it if I'm saying something that's racist, or sexist, or transphobic, or dismissive of entire religious communities of practice, or ableist, or otherwise bad ally behavior. Nora Jemisin rightly (and nicely) called me out on using the derogatory term "lame" when I was in a panel she was moderating at WisCon. Until WisCon, I never quite took seriously the idea that people with disabilities might mind that slur. Now I do and I'm trying to replace it with "bogus," so in print or in person, if I slip up, let me know. Email rather than public comments would be nice. I don't currently intend to rewrite history but from now on I want to be more sensitive.
From now on, tell me when, in public writing, I'm wearing my subtext on my sleeve and don't know it. Tee hee I'm being so lyrical and cryptic about my work or personal issues! NO YOU'RE NOT, YOU'RE JUST PLAYING COY & WE CAN ALL TELL ANYWAY. Email strongly preferred. Again, I'm not going to turn into a revisionist, even though some of my columns and blog entries make me wince like anything.

To those of you who have been doing the needful already: Thanks! To others: feel free to start!

Fun fact: according to my NewsBruiser stats, the most common words (and their number of uses) since I started blogging in 2000 are:

about:1779
people:889
which:802
would:777
don't:745
other:725
Leonard:672
think:621
because:601
really:592

# 15 Jun 2009, 09:19PM: Simplification: I just realized that my previous entry reduces to "Please pull me aside and tell me if I'm making a fool of myself." Which is, in general, something I'd like my friends & well-wishers to do.

# (3) 15 Jun 2009, 10:56PM: "It Is Our Choices, Harry, That Show...": If I really wanted to be with-it and hip to the NYC speculative fiction scene, I'd attend all sorts of relevant events. Instead: Clojure talk, social tea, watching original Star Trek films II, III, IV, and IV, Central Park rock-lounging, dentist, co-writing productivity session in a coffeeshop, watching PBS broadcast Chess in concert, and, uh, real work if I play my cards right.

# (1) 15 Jun 2009, 11:34PM: Who Needs Reddit: For about seven years, after college, I felt my glibness slipping away. Words escaped the tip of my tongue. I thought I was getting older and dumber.

Since WisCon, I haven't had that sensation once. I've been writing more and making more intellectual connections, and my speech is denser and more allusive. I can expand on fancies more easily. Who needs ginkgo biloba?

In my hyperlinky mood, then, selections from my linkfeed as stored on Delicious.

Actual Manuscript Workshop Comments reminds me of Billy Collins's poem "Workshop".

Medical identity theft is the ID theft that can kill you.

Pre-Loving v. Virginia, my marriage to Leonard (who is white) would have been illegal in some US states.

Comparing personals sites: "On Craigslist, people say what they want; on Nerve or OK Cupid, they say who they are, and you infer the rest."

You can sing "Brain in a beaker" to the rhythm of "Smoke on the Water."

FutureMe lets people write letters to be delivered to their own email addresses at a set future date. Some letters are public. Teenagers and deployed military personnel show up a lot. A heartbreaking story with a funny postscript, one in which the author refers to past & future selves together as "us" (as opposed to the 1st-person-singular and 2nd-person-singular modes that most authors use), and a really dark one.

Kris's chilling and effective horror story about children's TV and internet forums.

If you deal with nonprofit logistics, you should know about CiviCRM, a free and open source web-based membership and donation management system designed for non-profits.

And I'm too late to Daisy Owl to be cool, but a couple of my favorites: Movie Night and Hey Now. Apropos of the latter: the best way you can spend $5 at a bar (such as Sissy McGinty's on Steinway in Astoria) is to put it into the internet jukebox and queue up 12 iconic pop songs from the 1990s. Green Day, Smashmouth, 4 Non Blondes, Nirvana, Billy Joel, and No Doubt selections will ensure that an entire table of twentysomethings will sing together and bond for half an hour.