The Announcement

/ Shane / 7 Comments

Well, for those of you that we don’t see very often, we have some big news…baby #2 is on the way!

It’s a boy! Sara is 21 weeks. Evie has periods of more and less excitement. She wants to buy her “baby brudder” everything. She just walks through the story saying he’ll need socks, mittens, dresses, boots for in the rain, toys…she even wanted to buy scissors to cut her baby brudder’s tags off his new pajamas.

Sara hasn’t been as sick as last time, but she’s been plenty of sick. The most traumatizing thing of the pregnancy so far is when Sara threw up in Evie’s sand bucket. Evie was inconsolable.

We asked Evie what she would name the baby, and she decided on “Refrigerator Baby”. Since then we’ve asked her a few times, and she’s always stuck with it.

So far, Nathan had the worst reaction – when I told him, the first thing he said was “Oh no!” (I told you I wouldn’t let you forget that)

I really can’t conceive of how we will have the time for 2 kids. It seems like we barely have time for 1! But people manage it I guess, so I guess it all works out.

By the way, anybody that was previously under instructions not to tell anybody, the ban is now officially lifted.

Jabberwocky

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carrol

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Best. Poem. Ever.

At the risk of over-explaining things, I love the fact that this poem is mostly made up nonsense words, and yet it still totally makes sense. Is there any doubt that a vorpal blade would go snicker-snack when it cuts off the Jabberwock’s head? Doesn’t “came whiffling through the tulgey wood, and burbled as it came” give you a good picture of what it looked like? And some of the nonsense is so good, the words have made it into common language. Brilliant.

Google Wave = ?

/ Shane / 1 Comment

What to say about Google Wave?

First off, let me say that it is pretty cool. I could see the potential there. It is sort of a combination of chat and email, but the possibilities really shine when multiple people are using it at the same time. It also has some cool potential for work/school/group collaboration. I can see where they were going with it.

BUT

For the average person there doesn’t seem to be much point. It fills a niche that most people didn’t really need to be filled. It doesn’t offer me much more than Gmail already offers me (I even have chat built in to Gmail!). So the net result is that I just have one more website to check. As far as I can tell, Google Wave seems to be a website where people can go to ask each other what the heck Google Wave is and what we are supposed to be doing with it.

So, in summary, Google Wave is kind of cool but kind of useless, until such time that it completely replaces email (a.k.a. just short of never). Anybody disagree?

(And after all that, I have invites! Ask in the comments and I’ll send you one!)

Best Rejection Ever!

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Best day so far of my publishing career! I got a signed rejection from Asimov’s. Best. Rejection. Ever.

For those of you not in the know, when you submit a story to magazine it enters what can only be affectionately refered to as the “slush pile”. All of the unsolicited manuscripts (and there are more than you can believe) are tossed in a pile which has to be sorted through and read by poor souls hoping against hope that something, anything, of value can be found. The vast majority of this sea is crap (including, in some cases, my submissions). But every once in a while, a gem is found in the slush pile and passed into the hands of an editor.

It turns out, this particular story of mine was just such a gem.

Normal slush rejections from Asimov’s get a form rejection letter. I have several of those to prove it. This rejection had my name in it and was signed by the editor. Now that’s something I don’t see every day! It’s not exactly publication, but it’s only 1 step below. And this isn’t from just any magazine, it’s from Asimov’s. One of the big 3. The first magazine I ever submitted a story to.

I’m sure (hoping) that one day I’ll look back at this post and laugh at myself. But in the meantime, I have great hopes for the story, as well as future submissions to Asimov’s. Lets hope that this one wasn’t a fluke, but the beginning of a trend.

Onward and upward!

Oddly Specific

/ Shane / 2 Comments

We’ve all seen funny signs somewhere. I just do not get tired of seeing them. I remember one time we were at a campground and the speed limit was set to 5 1/2 miles per hour. We joked about it at the time, but too bad we didn’t take a picture…because it would have been perfectly at home on Oddly Specific.com.

In fact, it’s not nearly as oddly specific as some of the signs they have on there already. The link is well worth the click, but here are a couple of my favorites to wet your whistle: