Linkstew

Okay, my term paper is due in almost exactly 12 hours, and I've written about 3.5 pages out of 12-15. Not bad, all things considered, but I've been sidetracked for the last couple of hours researching as much as possible the history of property laws. It's been years since I've done any research like this, and I'm really enjoying it. Everything I read dangles some other carrot in front of me that I want to go investigate.

It's very inspiring, and it reminded me of an interesting comment that Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett made in this online interview. They said:

Neil-Gaiman: But, for a writer, fiction gives you very little you can steal from.
Terry: Whereas you can open an old history book and — bingo!
Neil-Gaiman: Whereas reference books give you huge huge unmined fields to go and explore.
Terry: And no one else reads them now, except us...

Another example of this is Neal Stephenson, who does a ton of research for his novels. Check out Nadia's story that her CS professor told her about Stephenson's research (for better or for worse).

Anyway, I'm enjoying my research, and I'm sad that I'm not going to be able to do nearly as thorough a job of it as I'd like. I feel bad that I can't go back to the original sources on this material, and instead I'm relying on papers that are referencing the original material that I should be using.

Tonight at Neil Gaiman's reading of Coraline, he mentioned that the Coraline movie adaptation would be directed by Henry Selick, the guy who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas.

This news was met with much enthusiasm by the audience, because, well, The Nightmare Before Christmas didn't suck.

What no seemed to remember was that Henry Selick's last movie was Monkeybone, which, uh, did suck.

So we'll see.

Tonight I saw Neil Gaiman read his new book, Coraline. Yes, all of it.

I got to the church at about 5:20 and found Kevin waiting in line, saving a spot for me. While standing outside and waiting, a man in a wheelchair asked me who was speaking tonight, and what he'd written. It was an awkward question, because I knew there was no way the man would have heard of anything Gaiman had written. I rattled off Gaiman's books, and then the man asked what he primarily wrote about.

That was an even harder question. "Stories," I decided after a pause. "The stories people tell, and how stories affect people, and how people believe in stories."

And to my confusion, the man in the wheelchair said "Well, he may have another fan," as he rolled off.

The ticket said that the doors would open at 5:30, but we didn't get in until about 5:45. At 6:30, someone came out and announced that, at the author's request, we would be starting 15 minutes late, because many of the will-call tickets hadn't been claimed, and "there are lots of people coming in from out of the area who don't know what parking's like around here."

The place was pretty full, though there seemed to be adequate seating for everyone. Kevin said that out of 800 tickets, there were only 45 tickets left for sale at the door.

A very nice touch was that the first three rows were reserved for people who brought children with them. Especially nice, considering that the book is as much a children's adventure as anything. And about two of the three rows actually had people with children in tow, which was very cool to see.

Another very nice touch was that they were piping a multitude of the more mellow Magnetic Fields songs through the church before the reading and during the intermission.

So Gaiman came out at around 6:50. "Here's what we're going to do," he said. "I'm going to very quickly answer a few frequently asked questions right up front to give commuters a few more minutes to get here, and then I'm going to read Coraline to you. And then about halfway through we'll take a break, and then I'll finish reading Coraline to you."

For the record, the frequently asked questions that he pulled out of his head to answer were:

• A little news about a Corline movie (to be directed by the guy who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, and staring Michelle Pfeiffer as the Mom and the Other Mom, apparently).
• "Tori's new album is wonderful, and that's all I'm going to say about it."
• And news that he's currently writing some new Sandman stories that will come out as a hard back volume next February as part of Vertigo's 10th anniversary.
• And those were his faqs. Of course, if you read his journal, you probably knew that already.

So then, he read us Coraline, and we had an intermission, and then he finished reading Coraline, just like he said he would.

He did a remarkable job, and only had one real slip of the tongue, when he accidentally said "Caroline" when it was supposed to be a "Coraline." Though later, he subtly referenced that by improvising and having one of the characters who gets her name wrong say "Caroline, Corline, Whatever your name is, ..." where the book only had a "Caroline." (I was following along in my own copy occasionally, and since that character calling her Coraline (instead of Caroline) was out of place, I double checked and noticed the improv.)

As for the book itself, it was good and short and fun. It is, after all, a children's/young adult novel. It's got a lot of Alice and Wonderland aspects to it, complete with a sarcastic cat... It was cute and I enjoyed, but the ending left me a little irritated in a niggling details kind of way. Considering that Gaiman read it *out loud* in 3.5 hours or so, you could probably read it in an hour or two yourself.

We got out of there at about 11:05. You do the math.

But it was a fantastic evening, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was well worth my time and money.

When it was all over, someone shouted "Read it again," to which Gaimain paused briefly and then simply said "No." It carried that strange quality of finality that only a british accent can.

This is pretty much a quick list off the top of my head, based on what I didn't do this summer and what I know I want to do.

• Read House of Leaves, some Gaiman or another that I haven't read, and Pratchett's The Last Hero (assuming it gets released on schedule).
• Stumble through another semester without failing.
• Play Metal Gear Solid (I'm already half done with it) before Metal Gear Solid 2 comes out, play Xenogears before Xenosaga comes out, etc.
• Do my best to prepare for the release of the Gamecube on November 18th, by hopefully getting ahead in school before it's too late.
• Actually overhaul that other site I work on.
• Actually consolidate my Desktop computers, and turn the remains into a PC for my brother.
• Meet with my advisor to make sure that I'll be able to stay at Berkeley another year, and if I can't stay an undergrad, make plans to take tests and apply to Grad School. Yes, this is as backwards as it sounds.
• Get a life outside of work.
• Dust the untouched corners of my apartment. Notably, the shelves in my room.
• Get new ideas for The Stew from CS 170 and 188, and possibly implement them.

Yeah, that's more than I'll be able to do, and I know it. I'm already performing triage in my head, and yes, the games are (well, not counting the Gamecube) are going to be the first to get the cut.

At the beginning of the summer, I laid out these goals. Let's see how I met them:

• Yes, I finished Employees, and yes, we migrated everything to our new primary web server. Yahoo!
• Yes, I gave Linkstew a total overhaul.
• No, I didn't do anything to that other site I work on. Boo. =(
• I finished Zelda 64, but I didn't finish the other three games I planned to. Instead, I played a lot of Mario Party, flirted briefly with Star Wars Super Bombad Racing, played my Game Boy Advance and beat Castlevania: Circle of the Moon twice, and then played a lot of Gran Turismo 3 (review forthcoming).
• Not only did I read Science of Discworld, but I also read American Gods and the entire Sandman series. Reviews forthcoming.
• I didn't really even think about doing anything to my desktop computers. They're exactly as they were at the start of the summer.
• I gave my apartment a couple of pretty good cleanings, and threw away a lot of old junk as part of a bit of a purging.
• I got a TiVo, and actually ended up watching more Television than I really planned.
• And I really didn't have much of a life at all outside of work and my roommate.

I had one plan for my weekend of surgery recovery, but it's gone nothing according to plan, leaving me recovering in a completely different, but equally acceptable way.

Here's what I planned:

Completely on the recommendation of a reader, I ordered Fishing With John. And completely of my own free will, I ordered Gran Turismo 3. I was going to lug my PlayStation 2 home with me, watch Fishing With John, and play Gran Turismo 3.

This did not happen, because I apparently haven't learned my lesson about ordering things before trips yet. I placed both orders on the morning of Thursday, July 12th. I ordered GT3 from EB Games, while I ordered Fishing With John from Amazon.com. I was more concerned with getting GT3, since I knew my brother really wanted to play it (and he doesn't have a PS2), but I didn't think there would be a problem, because EB's default shipping was called "second day air." I did the math, and figured there would be all kinds of time for my package to get there before I left on Wednesday the 18th. It was the DVD from amazon that I was concerned about getting on time. But I didn't want to pay for extra shipping, and I knew I could cope if I didn't get to watch the DVD this weekend, so I just left it at that.

Here's what happened:

Well, of course GT3 didn't come in, but Fishing With John came in without a problem. And as is always the case with my shipping woes, GT3 arrived Wednesday morning, when I was on the way to catch my train. But without GT3, there was no way I was going to lug my PS2 home. And yet, I brought the Fishing With John DVD anyway... So I got stuck here with a DVD without a player to watch it with. Oops.

So I knew Tuesday night that my GT3 plans had fallen through, so I quickly tossed together alternative weekend plans -- Reading! I've had a couple of books in my queue for awhile that I hadn't gotten around to reading, because I tend to get so caught up in books that it really disrupts my sleep schedule. What better time to disrupt my sleep schedule then when I'm already going to be knocked out off and on because of pain killers?

So I've already finished The Science of Discworld, and I'm well into American Gods. And I have GT3 waiting for me when I get back to Berkeley. It wasn't what I had planned, but it's certainly not a bad way to spend a restful weekend . More in depth reviews of all of the above are coming later. Right now, I need to get back to Shadow's tale.

Well, I mentioned The Magnetic Fields last night, and then Peter mentioned them, and suggested that Rabi liked them, and then Kevin jumped in and suggested that now he was going to have to look into them, which prompted me to walk down the street to Amoeba and pick up a copy of their box set -- 69 Love Songs. 3 CD's with 23 songs each.

And I've been listening to the album for the last 12 hours, since I picked it up at about 2 this afternoon. And I'd be lying if I claimed I felt qualified to do this album justice in a review at this point, so I'm just going to attempt to channel my gibbering happiness with this album into a quick and dirty endorsement. As if Pratchett and Gaiman (and Peter and Rabi) endorsing The Magnetic Fields wasn't enough, now you've got my endorsement too (and probably Kevin's soon as well).

The first song, all by itself, brought a huge smile to my face, and I listened to it three or four times before moving on. And then, at Peter's recommendation, I listened to the first disc twice, and then the second disc twice, and then the third disc twice. And now I need to go back and listen to the whole thing again reading all the words, because I'm already hooked on the music, and I already love the words I catch (there are a few tricky spots).

The album obviously has a theme, and it executes that theme with incredible skill. And the interesting thing about packing that many love songs into an album is that everyone will find something that speaks to them in the set. Be it the feeling that "I don't want to get over you," or the sentiment that "No one will ever love you," or loving "The Way You Say Good-Night." And the reason I grabbed those sentiments and not others is because those are the titles of songs, and ones that popped out at me as I scanned the list. It seems like it's got everything there, and you'll find something for you. Really.

As far as their style goes, it runs the whole range. When I was about halfway through, I felt like I couldn't actually identify The Magnetic Fields' own style, and instead I was confused by all of the misdirection. It seemed to my like every song was parodying some other style. But I'm pretty familiar with bands who flirt with every style under the sun, and so now I think I can more or less pick out the unifying elements between the songs. But even unable to detect those unifying aspects, I was still enjoying every new song as it came along.

Except for "Abigail, Belle of Kilronan" (disc 2, track 22). The way that one bounced back and forth between the two speakers of my headphones built a standing wave inside my head and made it explode. Really. It was one of the most obnoxious things I've ever experienced, which is a shame because without headphones on it's another nice song.

It's worth mentioning that the set comes in two forms: Either the whole box set can be bought at once, or the three discs of the set can be bought individually. I highly recommend you dig up the change to get the box set (or all three discs), but if you can only afford two, go for discs 1 and 3, I guess, but I can barely recommend that -- it's like breaking up a family. But it's really an amazing album, and I only regret two things about it: 1. That I didn't look into it right after Pratchett recommended it to me, and 2. That I can't fit the whole thing on my Rio -- only 2/3 of it -- and I don't want only part of it there.

So as you might have noticed, I saw (New York Times Bestselling author) Neil Gaiman speak tonight at Cody's. He was funny, and very well spoken, but unfortunately, instead of being anecdotal and telling various stories, he merely read for half an hour from American Gods, and then answered questions for the other half.

Why unfortunately? Well, I can just as easily read American Gods as Gaiman can, and he himself described himself as "it's first reader," and suggested that a lot of the book seemed to write itself. For example, when I went to see Ursula K. LeGuin speak about Fictional Folklore last year, she instead decided to read from one of her novels, and I left out of boredom.

So the evening wasn't quite what I hoped for, but it was still enjoyable enough that it was worth my time. Another problem with the evening was that it wouldn't have been very approachable for someone who is unfamiliar with Gaiman, unlike the Pratchett talks I've been to. So if you're a moderate sized fan of Gaiman, I'd recommend going to see him speak sometime. Otherwise, I'm not so sure it'd be worth your time.

further thoughts: Kevin said that a friend of his who came along and had never read Gaiman was moved by the evening to start. And once he'd suggested that, I realized that perhaps there are three approaches for an author to take at an appearance: Like Gaiman, he can read a piece from his book in hopes of getting someone wandering by interested, and in so doing, sell more books. Or, like Pratchett, he can tell well-told stories which entertain people and make people respect the author, but not necessarily move the audience to go out and buy a book. Or finally, an author can be less than articulate, and move no one to do anything. So in that light, perhaps a well read reading isn't as bad for someone unfamiliar with an author as I thought.

While waiting for Gaiman at Cody's tonight, I overheard someone behind me say "Yeah, Gaiman just did a concert with the Magnetic Fields..." Which immediately caught my attention, and actually motivated me to turn around ask for some information about the band. You see, when I saw Pratchett speak last year, I was wearing my They Might Be Giants Flying Carpet/Mysterious Woods T-Shirt, and when I went to have my copy of The Fifth Elephant signed, the first thing Pratchett said to me, before I'd even had a chance to say anything to him, was "Have you ever heard of the Magnetic Fields?" Well, no, no I hadn't, I told him. And I tried to find something about the band at the time, but couldn't (I obviousy didn't look very hard), and forgot about them right up until tonight at Cody's.

It would seem that the Magnetic Fields are tied to that shirt, because, of course, I was wearing my They Might Be Giants Flying Carpet/Mysterious Woods shirt tonight as well. And the guy behind me suggested that Amoeba has their CD's, so I'll have to go look into that one of these days, because if Pratchett recommended them and Gaiman likes them...

For those of you in Berkeley, Terry Pratchett is going to be speaking at Cody's Books (on Telegraph) on May 11 at 7;30pm. For those of you not in Berkeley, here is a list of when and where else he's speaking this time around. I've seen him speak before, and he's quite amusing.

Also, on June 27 at 7:30pm, Neil Gaiman will be speaking at Cody's Books on Telegraph. Better and Better!

Also Also, a new GURPS Discworld book has been released: GURPS Discworld Also. Good things come in flocks, it seems.