Tag: books

  • WordCamp Philly: Dev Day! (Part 2)

    I wasn’t planning on attending the second day of WordCamp Philly, since it’s focus is developers, of which I am not one (yet). I’m gradually sliding deeper down the rabbit hole, and was certainly helped along by the main event yesterday, but still not at a level at which I would consider myself a developer, even a wimpy amateur one.

    But, a couple people said I should come anyway, and today’s event was even more conveniently located for me, so once again, I figured Why not? and headed on down! And once again, I’m oh-so-glad I did!

    Dev Day is more free-form and hands-on than the main event, and a smaller group, so everybody’s in one [really sweet] room, hanging out and working on things and enjoying cookies as big as my face, punctuated by some informal presentations. Much to my surprise, this included a Q&A time with freaking Matt Mullenweg (co-founder/creator of WordPress (among other things), and occupant of the coolest domain name I know of, ma.tt), which tended toward the future of WordPress and the internet in general. Also, silliness.


    https://twitter.com/HTMLbyJoe/status/260102904046825472


    https://twitter.com/jcasabona/status/260106170159734784


    https://twitter.com/melchoyce/status/260109060307812352
    https://twitter.com/jcasabona/status/260107984888283140


    https://twitter.com/jcasabona/status/260112705409667072
    (Poor guy must have like 100 @ mentions from today!)

    Jason’s hidden talent was also revealed:

    And I even found a collaborator to work with on that calendar of nerdy events idea!

    When the official day wrapped up, we migrated across town to Barcade, “a hybrid craft beer bar and—yep, you called it—video arcade,” (Inc.) ← (the article I mentioned a couple times tonight, by the way!) which boasts a lovely selection of beers and 80’s arcade games, as well as a really unique and tasty assortment of sandwiches and such!

    The evening flew by in a constant stream of great conversations. I got to chat with Matt for a while about a variety of things, including libraries and NASAtweetups/socials (by which he seemed quite intrigued!), so he gets my seal of approval! Talked for a bit with a couple from Lancaster, and Robert from North Carolina, and at times all the separate conversations sort of merged… occasionally taking odd turns… at some point the “fun fact” I learned on the radio this morning — that if you spin a monkey at higher than 145rpm its brainstem separates from its spinal cord D= — was actually relevant (re: Felix Baumgartner’s jump)! Towards the end of the night, I discovered that the guy I’d been sitting next to lives a 10 minute walk from my house! It’s that sort of small, crazy world!



    Heading out, I gave Chris (who wore the awesome penguin costume yesterday) a ride to the train station. Unfortunately, there were some issues with the roads we were on suddenly veering off unannounced or disappearing altogether, resulting in a depressingly impressive number of wrong turns and wild guesses, a surprise detour to New Jersey, and the “scenic tour” of far too much of Philadelphia!

    Thank goodness, we had plenty of time, so managed to still get him to his train and home! He said he’d owe me a beer next time he’s in town, but really I owe him one or three for how absurdly long it took to get there! (I promise I actually have a decent sense of direction! Just not tonight apparently!) But hey, we had a fun little adventure?! All’s well that ends well!

  • A Tale Told in Tweets – featuring Lisa and John Scalzi

    A day that did not start out particularly well:

    • I was bummed that clouds had kept me from being able to catch a glimpse of the Transit of Venus in person Tuesday night.
    • I was extra upset because I didn’t realize it was the day Enterprise was to be brought by barge to her new home on the Intrepid, and so couldn’t make it up to New York in time to watch!
    • Enterprise was damaged in transit and that made me sad.
    • When our office intern came back with lunch, mine was not what I ordered/wanted, and kind of lame.

    It was just one of those days… but they I saw this tweet:


    https://twitter.com/scalzi/status/210429187503296512

    …One of my favorite authors heading for my city (and terrorizing fellow train-goers)? That has potential. 🙂 So I asked what was bringing him to Philly…


    https://twitter.com/scalzi/status/210430530502664192
    and, of course


    Lisa saw this exchange and expressed envy, which was followed by the following sequence of tweets:

    Me: Cooooome to me! I will bring you to @scalzi!

    Lisa: [this one mysteriously disappeared, but was something along the lines of “Waaah work til 5.”]

    Me: Screw work, leave at 4! Plenty of time then!

    Lisa: …do you think I could make it? With the traffic?

    Me: Yes, the sooner the better, but if you leave by 4, you’ll make it.

    Lisa: I’m in, let’s do this thing.

    !!! *gasp* I seriously never expected her to agree. We play this game a lot. But she’s “responsible” and busy, so she hardly ever goes along with my crazy drop-everything-and-come-hang-out-with-me-schemes! But this time…


    https://twitter.com/PetEditor/status/210462664634286080

    And she did! We both bailed out of work early and converged on a random shopping center parking lot not too far out of the way for either of us, joined forces, and headed downtown! While I drove, she tweeted:


    https://twitter.com/PetEditor/status/210491275626029059

    https://twitter.com/PetEditor/status/210492024036655105

    https://twitter.com/PetEditor/status/210492371673153536

    https://twitter.com/PetEditor/status/210495668387721218

    We found our way to a parking spot, the bookstore, and the little corner of the 3rd floor where Mr. Scalzi was reading a new secret short story. Which was awesome. But secret, so that’s all you get to know about that.

    Then he read an excerpt from Redshirts, which is not secret, because you can buy and read it, but I’m not going to tell you about it, because you should buy and read it!

    The scene he chose to read was chock-full of witty banter, so rather than read the back-and-forth himself, he brought out a surprise special guest!


    https://twitter.com/PetEditor/status/210507538091868160

    https://twitter.com/PetEditor/status/210508265606492162

    This was followed by some seriously entertaining Q&A time, during which he mentioned that there will probably be more books in the Old Man’s War series, which makes me ridiculously happy!

    He talked a bit about his writing process and style, which are both devoid of superfluous details. I hadn’t really noticed as I read his books, but thinking back, you do realize that there’s not a whole lot of description, whether of the characters appearance or their surroundings or whatever, unless its actually relevant to the story. It works for him style-wise, keeping the plot moving rather than lingering amid pages of endless adjectives, but it’s not like he’s leaving things out – it’s not even in his mind. He tends to figure out the particulars only as he needs them, rather than planning everything out in advance.


    He hung around a bit to meet folks and sign books… the bookstore gave half of us panic attacks when they apparently ran out of copies of Redshirts – they thought they had more than that, but couldn’t find them for the longest time! Finally one of them found the other box of books so the rest of us could buy ours and get them signed. Though I had been one of the first few people to get down to the register, I was one spot too far back in line and had to wait for the second batch, so by the time I got my copy and got back upstairs, we ended up being just about the last people to get our books signed. But that was actually okay, because we didn’t feel quite so rushed as those sorts of lines tend to be.


    https://twitter.com/PetEditor/status/210534597111459841

    Scalzi’s good people. (By the way, he blogged this too!)

    So, yay random awesome things happening!


  • CSTS Philly

    Kicking off what promises to be a fairly epic month of smaller-yet-geektastic adventures in between space shuttles (yes, that’s a valid notation of time in my life lately!) was CSTS Philly last night.

    For those who may not know, CSTS = Can’t Stop The Serenity, in which browncoats from all over the world gather in their respective cities to watch the movie, generally goof around, and raise money for Equality Now, a charity Firefly/Serenity creator Joss Whedon supports.

    It’s been happening and growing every year since 2006, and I tried to go the last few years, but never could, for one reason or another.

    Finally, a year arrived when I knew about it well in advance, yet remembered when it got closer, and had no other obligations that night! Of course, when the day actually arrived, I didn’t feel like going anywhere, but Marian Call (who made an awesome album inspired by Firefly and BSG) was coming to play in the area a couple of weeks later, and I had told her I’d take some flyers to put up/pass out there, so that filled in the missing motivation my inner lazy introvert ate, and it turned out to be a really fun night!

    There were refreshments, trivia, raffles, and live music by Sean Faust. At one point he asked if anybody in the crowd could sing, and nobody volunteered, so after a minute I did, and ended up singing “The Hero of Canton” (also known as Jayne’s song) with him, though I didn’t know all the words to the verses, and once folks realized that was what they were being asked to sing, others quickly picked up the slack!

    The main organizer, Matt, called me back up on stage a little later to announce the Marian Call show, which was awesome, and a bunch of people took flyers. We watched Serenity then, as a “Special Hell” screening, in which the audience is encouraged to talk in the theater, adding emphasis and snark a la MST3K, which definitely added an interesting layer to the always wonderful ‘verse. Definitely glad I went! I even won a couple of the raffles, coming home with the book finding Serenity (edited by Jane Espenson) and a copy of the “Done the Impossible” DVD!

  • New books! And snow! Must be Christmas!…April fools!

    Ha…eh…huh? Nowait. Really, universe, what?

    o.O

    I can’t decide which I’m more excited to finally have / which to read first! (The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (who also wrote this lovely note), and Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale by Joss & Zack Whedon with art by Chris Samnee.) Both I already know I’m going to love, and both have been a long time coming (my own doing, only actually ordered them Tuesday morning)… feels like so much more than a box of books… More like… a car… no, a mail-order bride…

    *Segue to semi-creepy allegorical [day]dream sequence*

    I’d spent ages fawning over pictures and descriptions…researching, contemplating, discussing and soul-searching, until I knew I had made the right selection. I placed my order and waited. One day I arrived home from work late in the evening, and as I came up into my room, saw that my beauty, my beloved, was there waiting for me. I tore away the coverings of a long journey, and lost myself in [literary] ecstasy for the next four days…

    Yeah, that went creepier than expected. :/ But hey, the bond between a she-geek and her books is profound. 😉

  • SNOWF.

    The sistercreature is home. J-term break. I somehow thought it was already the normal spring semester, while having no idea January was that close to over. Total surprise. I was just standing in the kitchen, minding my own business, looking for lunch at 3pm, and all the sudden the door made sounds and there she was. >.< The house seems so much more crowded when she’s here.

    Also, snow. And a fair bit of it too. It’ll be all the more crowded, because nobody’s going anywhere any time soon. It’s pretty though, and much nicer to be snowed in at home than at school.

    Wouldn’t think snow days would do me any good, since I’m not scheduled at Job #1 at all and I work wherever whenever for Job #2… but then the power went out for like 30 seconds, and the cable/internet went out for a few hours (the reasonable ones, when I would have actually done work). Pretty much all my work is internet-based and mostly stored in Google Docs, so I was able to pull the text from the few things I had open already and finish those offline, but there’s only so much I could get at without internet access, so I got a “snow day” for a little while after all. It’s back now though, obviously, so I’ll probably have to attempt productivity tomorrow.

    My phone is internety, but not in such a way that I could really accomplish anything with it, and both actual tv and tv-via-interwebs were kaputt, so I decided to actually read, for the first time in too long. I had a random murder mystery lying around from… well that’s slightly funny:

    Job #1 = bookstore, recall? Back when I was noobish and the world had reasonable temperatures, I was in there on one of my days off with the mama, trying to ask one of the managers a question, but there was this author in there finishing up a signing of sorts… looked to be done and packing up, but she was talking to the manager I was waiting to talk to, and somehow between the two of them, misinterpreted my lurking as waiting for her, so I felt awkward and when she asked if I wanted her to sign a book for me I said sure…

    …So I had this random murder mystery from this random local author lady, and an unexpected chunk of time to kill, so I read it. All of it. In like, 4ish hours, I think.

    It was pretty good… kind of dissatisfying for a while, as there was a long stretch in the later middle where not much was revealed so trying to figure it out was hopeless and frustrating, but in the end, things came together well enough. I could tell it was her first novel, but it was an enjoyable quick read overall, and the obligatory romantic sub-plot was believable and quite cute.

    It felt really good to be able to read for fun again, (I played guitar last night too! It’s like I’m a person again!) and moreover ’twas quite reassuring to discover that I could still read fairly quickly. After 4 years of mostly horrendous college reading, some failed attempts at reading business books/articles, and a few months in the cubecicle, I was afraid my brain had gone to mush. Maybe I’ll go do math now. D: