Tag: Amazon

Posted on

Gastronautic Updates

I wrote about the caterpillar infecting fungus called cordyceps, right? Well I went to one of the herbalist shops on Avenue U and purchased $40 dollars worth. In fact that was the smallest amount I could buy since the damned fungi cost about $200 an ounce.
Here’s about a quarter of my haul:

They smell faintly of chocolate and dust. The caterpillar part tastes like cardboard and dust. The protruding fungus has a tingly – sour taste, not unpleasant at all. I did not notice any health effect.

Moving on. I also wrote about a corn infecting fungus that the Mexicans call Cuitlacoche. I ordered a can of Monteblanco brand Cuitlacoche through Amazon and Mexgrocer.

The giant fungus infected corn kernels have a texture similar to slippery jack mushrooms and a slightly smoky flavor. The ingredients include onions , jalapeno peppers and epazote ( Skunkweed aka Wormseed, aka Mexican tea aka West Indian goosefoot aka Jerusalem parsley aka Hedge mustard aka Sweet pigweed which supposedly has “antiflatulent powers” ) which kind of make it hard to say what it really tastes like on its own.

Posted on

Oh, Crap, Singing …

My favorite Simpsons songs:
Canyonero Commercial
Jebediah Springfield’s Theme Song
Hank Scorpio’s Theme Song

My favorite Futurama songs (get them here) :
Robot Hell Song
Poppler Commercial Song
Bureaucrat’s Song
Grunka Lunka’s Song
Xmas Song

Strangely enough I liked Katey Sagal’s singing in Futurama songs. I learned that she recorded a CD called “Well“. The damn thing almost made me puke. I don’t even know how to explain it. Sachariny songs, terrible electronic music arrangements. Ewwww. Her voice sounded nothing like Leela’s singing in Futurama. I went to Amazon now to get the link, and low and behold – ten years after “Well” she has another CD called “Room” out. Do I dare to buy it? She does have a great voice…

Posted on

All Wright!

In the latest attempt to break the work-home-work-home Worm Oroborous cycle was my and my wife’s trip to Manhattan’s equivalent of Springfield’s South Street Squidport to listen to John C. Wright read from his latest book. The book, which I already pre-ordered from Amazon seems very promising, despite the fact that I hate the whole degenerate genre of Fantasy. You can find my previous rants about Mr. Wright (and assorted other Wrights) here.

We listened to the Wright’s reading of the first two chapters, talked to him for a little while and got a copy of the Phoenix Trilogy signed.

If you want to understand why I am so excited about this author, get a copy of Year’s Best SF 3 which sells for as little as one cent on Amazon and read Wright’s short story “Guest Law”. Then you’ll just have to read everything else that he’s written.

After the reading we went to explore my favorite skyscraper and the SquidSeaport itself (I haven’t been there in years).

Posted on

Good Stuff

I recently purchased “Looking at Photographs : 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art“. This is another outstanding book recommended to me by the inhuman intelligence of Amazon’s engine.

I can only imagine the torturous process that the author of this book must have gone through. I mean, how do you select 100 important photographs from Museum of Modern Art’s collection? And then write an article about the author, the photograph, the historical context and significance, the camera and photographic process used – all on one page? That must have been pure agony.

This book made me think a lot about photography and photographers. I need to write more about that.

In other news I only recently noticed how good ‘s photography is. Excessive lj-cuts + infrequent posting = people will not notice the good stuff.

Posted on

The Worm Oroborous

I was reading Barrington J. Bayley’s The Knights of the Limits which Amazon in its wisdom recommended for my consumption. The title story is about space travelers from a universe which inhabitants move in patterns through discrete points in space, like chess pieces.

This got me to think – 5 days a week a stainless steel worm moves me in a roughly L shaped pattern, from one tower into another, from one island onto another. And in both towers there are two computer screens and a chair. The two Ls form a Kekule snake, the Worm Oroborous.

I like to think that I am a Knight, but I am really a Pawn.

Posted on

Hulk Hogan

What’s interesting is how many people from amazing readers admit that they own a copy of “Hulk Hogan and The Wrestling Boot Band “, which Amazon reviews hail as “a musical masterpiece that makes Led Zeppelin and The Beatles look like Vanilla Ice by comparasion”, “a musical masterpiece which unleashes your senses to their full potential”. Indeed, “the beats are dope and the rhymes are MONEY “.

I have one degree of separation from the artist in question. One of my bosses at iXL was former WCW webmaster Bill Cunningham. He had Hulk’s (or more properly Hollywood) Hogan’s home phone in his cell phone memory. Bill was a great boss. I wonder where he is now.

Posted on

Jeff-O

Jeff Bezos from Greznte, Slovakia has a scary Amazon wishlist featuring “Special Forces Guerrilla Warfare Manual”, “Total Resistance”, “150 Questions For A Guerrilla”, “On Guerrilla Warfare” and “Everyman’s Talmud”. Please don’t buy him anything. He’s probably up to no good.

Jeff Bezos from Seattle, WA who works at Amazon.com, is known for his laugh and Austin Powers costume likes Aunt Lizzie’s Zero Carb Cheese Straw Bites so much that “[his] mouth is watering as [he writes] this”. I bought a box of them too, and Jeff did not lie. They are pretty damn good. I wonder, if I’ll buy him something from his wishlist, will he send me a “thank you” email? Then again, he must have a better discount than I do…

Also sometimes he time-travels.

Posted on

Thought Tally : I’ve Got Bottles Of Grins And Racetrack Wins And Lotions To Ease Your Pains

* I wonder is Tom Doherty of TOR is a relative of Henry L. Doherty of the City Services Corporation.

* Did Steve lose a lot of weight since the infamous “Developers! Developers! Developers!” video?

* Theodore Sturgeons real name was Edward Hamilton Waldo. He heh.

* Salesman of the Century about Ron Popeil and Curve of Binding Energy are totally going into my Amazon wishlist.

* The “Shottle Bop” from Sturgeon’s story Is located on 10th Avenue between 20th and 21st street.

* NESFA Clubhouse must be pretty damn cool:

“A big chunk of the purchase price came from money raised by the NESFA Lunar Realty Trust #1, a trust organized under Mass. law which collected around $60,000 towards the purchase price. The NLRT#1 sold bonds worth $100 each and paid interest based on the prime rate. Most of the money was raised locally, but S.C.I.F.I, the organization which had just run the huge and financially quite successful LAcon II, purchased $20,000 with of NLRT#1 bonds. (It’s worth noting that they paid for it with 100 checks for $137 — it’s a long story — plus one more check for $6300.) The NLRT#1 bonds were paid off completely over the next two and a half years.
…
While dismantling the huge dryer for removal, we discovered about a quart of stuff in the bottom: coins, jewelry, marbles, and other pocket stuff. The coins were the biggest portion and amounted to a decent haul. (Of course, it took three people several hours to fish them all out and clean them up…)

Another find of considerable value was a power shaft for the washer which was perhaps 6′ long with lovely ball-bearing axles and a 2′ diameter toothed gear on one end. As it was dismantled, people though it was much too lovely to waste — but what to do with it? Inspiration struck: Send it to LASFS! Don Eastlake quickly organized a carpentry crew and built a shipping crate which features heavy-duty construction and special mounting brackets which allowed the shaft to spin freely within the crate. The finished crate was closed, screwed shut, and put on a truck for delivery to LASFS. Since there was some doubt that LASFS would accept delivery of a huge sealed crate from NESFA, arrangements were made to have a secret agent on site to handle that chore for them…”

Posted on

Post While Waiting For Defragmentor: Blogger Exultant

My favorite modern science fiction writer, John C. Wright, Esq. , also started a livejournal, . I must warn you, that Mr. Wright is as controversial as he is brilliant. A retired lawyer and journalist, Libertarian turned Conservative, a self described Christian Atheist and Stoic he is nothing like a common livejournal blogger.

I strongly urge you to buy Year’s Best SF 3, a book containing a short story called “Guest Law”. This story made me a big fan. Copies of Year’s Best SF can be had for as little as 50 cents + shipping at Amazon.

Unfortunately Mr. Wright’s other short stories are rather hard to obtain, but you absolutely must get his Phoenix Exultant trilogy books. I’ve read the first two volumes and I can’t wait for the third one to come out.

The only thing short story of Mr. Wright’s that is available online is a William Hope Hodgson’s Night Land tribute titled “Awake in the Night“. Now, I am a staunch detractor of the fantasy genre. And I absolutely hate fan fiction. In this case I am willing to make an exception. Yeah, yeah, you heard me say that. But even though
“Awake in the Night” is a very good read and it revealed to me Night Land books which I will definitely pursue, I still wish it was an original Wright story instead of a tribute.