The Modern Adult Life of Barbie

Jan Edwards has an interesting post over at McSweeney’s about what Barbie’s life would be like. It was fun to read.

Post-Black Friday Blues: Did You Get Your Shopping Done?

It’s Cyber Monday, and a lot of us are returning back to work after a nice time off over the last few days. It has been quite relaxing, unless you spent most of your Friday battling the crowds to get your Christmas shopping done during Black Friday. Did you manage to get everything done or do you still have to shop?

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The Workstation of a Freelance Journalist: iMacs & iPads

Compared to some users who need a lot of processing power to get their jobs done, freelance journalists, bloggers, and anyone who writes to pay the bills have slightly different needs. They don’t need something that’s blindingly fast. It’s all about integrating different technologies, especially when you are on the go. This is the workstation of a freelance journalist. Read on to find out more.

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Twitter and Facebook Shoes: Tweet With Your Feet?

Would you ever buy Twitter or Facebook shoes? With the amount of people using these services, I’m sure that there is a market for these.

Read more @ Technabob

Disposable Touch Paper Interface: the Way of the Future?

If you ever got a chance to watch the short-lived Caprica, they had a technology just like this. Now, it looks like smart paper could soon be upon us, as the Japanese have come up with some interesting research using paper as a touchscreen. Yes, that’s right, run of the mill paper can serve as a touch-based interface. What will they think of next?

Read more @ Technabob

La pluralité des mondes

This is a great story by Justin E. Smith. I recently read Transition by Iain M. Banks, and it made me think of this.

{via 3QD}

The Insane Clown Posse & Their Juggalos

James McGirk takes a look at the juggalo phenomenon, the cult-fan base of the Insane Clown Posse.

Insane Clown Posse are a band of forty-somethings who sing threatening lyrics set to menacing music, all while wearing full circus makeup.

…, but juggalos are so spectacularly unappealing to mainstream tastes that in the eighteen years the band has been playing for major audiences they remain a cult phenomenon.

No Insane Clown Posse concert would be complete without dousing its audience in Faygo, an off-brand cola sold in the Midwest. Even after fans have complained after being hit with full bottles and sued. ICP claims they chose Faygo because it was the only soda they could afford growing up in Detroit. Off-brand soda is potent a symbol of American poverty.

{via 3QD}

My Daily Tweets 11-28-2010

• 03:03:11: From Twitter 11-27-2010: http://wp.me/pWvW-4Ra
• 14:48:33: Nice NSFW work by Dylan Forsberg AMY&PINK http://t.co/Qk6IL1W
• 14:54:00: RT @voyonsvoir Elisa Sednaoui par Ellen von Unwerth p.. http://bit.ly/eZTuyT #Elisa #Sednaoui #ellen #von #unwerth #vogue
• 14:54:44: Anna Selezneva by Maciek Kobielski – http://t.co/0rsfFOi
• 15:05:14: RT @claytoncubitt: Absinthe was the Victorian Four Loko.
• 15:05:21: RT @ConanOBrien: As if the TSA couldn’t get any creepier, today they announced they’re changing their name to Uncle TSA.
• 15:06:48: RT @purplelime: Heading out to p-p-p-pick up a pizza. I’ll probably p-p-p-pick up a penguin on my travels too #uksnow
• 15:31:10: Went to bed late as I was writing my werewolf story. About 44,000 words.
• 15:31:56: I’m also reading The Evolutionary Void. It’s been a while since read The Temporal Void, w no recaps it took me a few pages to get into it
• 15:32:32: I played w an iPad yesterday. It’s a nice, small, & handy device. Not for me though. Maybe iPad 2.
• 15:33:25: All of the places I went to yesterday didn’t have any iPhone 4s in stock, which surprised me. On a waiting list at Chung Hwa Telecom
• 15:35:26: I don’t feel like going anywhere today. I might go to Le Pigeonnier de Quercy tomorrow.
• 15:57:26: The Walking Dead Tell It to the Frogs S01E03 (AMC): http://wp.me/pWvW-4Rd
• 16:00:33: Chuck Versus the Coup d’Etat S04E04 (NBC): http://wp.me/pWvW-4Rf
• 16:03:20: Chuck Versus the Couch Lock S04E05 (NBC): http://wp.me/pWvW-4Rh
• 16:05:47: Chuck Versus the Aisle of Terror S04E06 (NBC): http://wp.me/pWvW-4Rj
• 16:08:28: Chuck Versus the First Fight S04E07 (NBC): http://wp.me/pWvW-4Rm
• 16:12:01: Chuck Versus the Fear of Death S04E08 (NBC): http://wp.me/pWvW-4Ro
• 16:15:12: Chuck Versus Phase Three S04E09 (NBC): http://wp.me/pWvW-4Rq
• 16:18:48: The Mentalist Red Moon S03E09 (CBS): http://wp.me/pWvW-4Rt
• 17:48:49: I want a @kellydeal scarf. Hoping to snag a nice one soon. Sweet Tooth and Strunk & White were my faves. http://goo.gl/kL2iN
• 18:22:59: Southern Vampire Mysteries: The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris: http://wp.me/pWvW-4Im
• 19:03:32: Terminal World By Alastair Reynolds: http://wp.me/pWvW-4Ry
• 23:10:19: RT @Tortue: L’essence est tellement pas chère ici que je peux même pas dire qu’elle est sont prix. Je viens juste de lire que ca va enco …

Follow me @ twitter.com/djrange

Terminal World By Alastair Reynolds

Terminal World cover via Wikipedia

I finally managed to get my hands on Alastair Reynolds’ last book, Terminal World. One of the reasons why I had waited for a while is that the story was very steampunk-ish, and I don’t think that Alastair Reynolds should write steampunk. He should write hard science-fiction. Actually, I don’t really like reading about steampunk. I much prefer to read hard science-fiction, fiction, and fantasy.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Southern Vampire Mysteries: The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris

The first eight books

A few weeks ago, I finally made it to a bookstore and perused the Charlaine Harris books on which True Blood was based upon. I was torn between getting them all or getting just a few. In the end, I decided to get them all. I got a healthy rebate as well, as I spent $140 on books that day. If you must ask, I saved around 24%.

Once I started reading them, I quickly went through them. It took me a few days, about a week, to get through them all. I hadn’t foreseen how fast I would read them, but these books were a cut below the complexity of my usual books, but they were easy and fun to read.

Immediately, I noticed the differences between the books and the series. Except a few filler books. like Dead As A Doornail and From Dead to Worse, the series was quite entertaining. The faerie element made more sense now after I had read the books, but I still disliked it. It confuses matters, to be honest, but apparently it’s an integral part of the plot. I don’t like how they were presented. The whole Seelie/Unseelie affair is presented strangely and doesn’t make much sense.

Also, the novels are quite short. They’re actually shorter than what I expected. Most of them are about 300 pages and can be read fast and easily if you read at a decent pace. They are good, but they do have their faults. The narrative between the books is almost continuous, meaning that it’s one big story. Instead of including a little recap in the beginning of each book, Harris includes the recaps inside the story, making some parts more tedious than others because of the repetitions.

That being said, I did enjoy her portrayal of werewolves and vampires. The other shapeshifters, well I don’t know. But the werewolves and vamps are pretty good. All in all, these books are very entertaining, easy to read, and time flies while you read them, which is one of the reasons why they are doing so well.