- I’m not sure I love this idea enough to actually follow them, but Matthew Baldwin did a neat thing: he created two Twitter bots, one playing Zork, and the other responding as the game. I’m actually more interested in replaying the game itself, but still, it’s pretty neat.
- Why Nigerian e-mail scams are so crude and obvious? Turns out, it may be on purpose. [via]
- So the hitchhiker who said he was writing a book about human kindness only to be shot by a driver…actually shot himself. So, um, I guess that’s one for humanity then…? [via]
- I’m not convinced any of these sounds are necessarily worth preserving, but the Museum of Endangered Sounds is an intriguing idea. [via]
- And finally, Three Simple Tips to Writing Your Own Aaron Sorkin Character Name. He must have hated writing a character named Mark Zuckerberg.
See also:
What can you say? The man has a formula.
Month: June 2012
Rainy day
This is a picture of Saturday. Today, it poured rain.
Off and on, that is, like a lot of summer weather in these parts. One hour, the sun would be shining (kind of), and the next the sky would explode with rainfall.
Which I guess is why the Long Island Railroad was so sucky this morning. I got off my train at Jamaica, hoping to make the connection, only to learn that connecting train was running twenty minutes late. So I quickly hopped back on the first train, where instead of my earlier seat I had to stand in a very crowded aisle, and went to Penn Station. I wasn’t late to work, but I had to race just to be on time.
I had to race again this evening, to beat the rain and refill my MetroCard, and the rain always seems to drive the weirdos and tourists onto the subways at rush hour. (I have nothing against tourists in Manhattan. Come, see the city! Just, please: some of us are trying to get home in the evening.) But none of them were quite as weird as the guy who got on the LIRR train midway along completely barefoot. I think he was carrying his shoes in his backpack, presumably to keep them dry in the pounding rain. But he looked like he was in no rush to slip them on.
Honestly, the floor of a LIRR car is one of the last places I’d want to walk around barefoot. But maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, so glad tomorrow’s Tuesday. I’ve come to look forward to that extra hour or so of sleep I get by not having to commute (to say nothing of being able to work in my pajamas, should I wish). There’s going to be one week next month when I won’t be able to do it, when I have to go into the office, and I just don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.
Song of the day
“Collecting Rocks” by Super XX Man
Sunday
Nary a boat nor a fish to be seen today. Just the crossword puzzle and a lot of Kaleidotrope reading.
I’m down to about twenty or so submissions still waiting to be read, which is good because the zine opens back up to submissions at the start of July. I don’t know that I’m going to advertise that fact all too much, if only to give myself a little bit of breathing room. I’m still figuring out how many stories I can afford to print every issue at the new rate of a cent a word — especially with no money coming in — and right now I need to focus first on getting the Summer issue on this year up in a timely fashion.
But stuff that comes in starting next Sunday…well, I guess I’m going to have to read it.
Right now, though, I’ve just sent out a small batch of fifty rejection letters, so I could use a small break.
Song of the day
“One Little Song” by Gillian Welch
One little piece of endless sky
One little taste of cherry pie