tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252684092009-11-28T02:32:51.412-08:00Welcome to the world, and my thoughts on both the issues of the day and nonsense that occurs to me. The internet is international: be a part of it.Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.comBlogger4272125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-66848298279744024522009-11-27T10:35:00.000-08:002009-11-27T10:57:58.703-08:00

"We are the deciders"-David McCumberTwo stories recently came out in the news which are largely related.The first is a report on ad revenues. Online advertising was seen in the late 1990s as a big boon for business, it would be a cheap, easy way to reach billions of people and it could be tailored on the internet to reach people where their interests lay. Interactive, personally tailored ads

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-9969486062569280922009-11-27T10:20:00.000-08:002009-11-27T10:35:48.398-08:00

"We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we may have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest."-Dr Steven SchneiderAl Gore, best known for winning awards and failing to steal the 2000 US Presidential election, has made a prediction. By 2010, he says he's optimistic that

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-51980026706252719422009-11-27T08:10:00.000-08:002009-11-27T10:06:46.867-08:00

"Pay cash to destroy valuable assets? Only the government would think this was a good idea."A weekly roundup of news and stories from around the internet for November 22-28, 2009.The big story of this week was the warmaquiddick scandal at Hadley Climate Research Unit in England. Leaked emails revealed deliberate attempts to manipulate or ignore problematic data, admissions that certain data just

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-81459040387826619672009-11-27T08:08:00.000-08:002009-11-27T08:10:21.743-08:00

"Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to accept God's final word on where your lips end."-Jerry Seinfeld

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-80457104102980914762009-11-27T08:00:00.000-08:002009-11-27T08:08:27.034-08:00

One more part to go, tomorrow. I haven't decided yet, I might jump forward in the story a ways to a point most readers will recognize. Overall I've managed to publish about a third of the book here, hopefully enough to get some interest but not too much so that people don't care to buy it when it is published, someday I hope.Since this is spur of the moment writing without editing or proofing

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-71571157361087117022009-11-26T07:29:00.000-08:002009-11-26T07:46:10.232-08:00

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."-John Fitzgerald KennedyThanksgiving is uniquely American, although the Canadians have adopted the holiday in their own fashion. Most people know the story behind thanksgiving, so I won't go over it again here, save to point out that these were people who survived a year

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-67084333228754007302009-11-26T07:28:00.000-08:002009-11-26T07:29:02.432-08:00

"The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving."-H.U. Westermayer

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-65322632327906876672009-11-26T07:11:00.000-08:002009-11-26T07:28:13.242-08:00

Its thanksgiving today, and I've got some cooking to do and a dinner to get to, but I wouldn't want to miss a day, so here's the next part of the ongoing story of Stoce and his Old Habits. So far Stoce hasn't been a very combattive fellow. When faced with danger he tends to flee instead of fight. It isn't that he cannot fight, its that he's a thief, and fights are noisy, attract attention, take

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-82902183059597479592009-11-25T08:47:00.000-08:002009-11-25T10:08:05.883-08:00

"As long as he’s black I cover his back"There's an odd contrast in news right now. According to polling, blacks support President Obama by somewhere around 90% to 10% disapproval. At the same time, unemployment among blacks is over 30% according to the latest data.In other words, blacks in America are among the hardest hit and most suffering from the bad economy and unemployment, yet are most

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-75565989717812685102009-11-25T08:43:00.000-08:002009-11-25T08:46:38.851-08:00

“We need to show some left to cover the costs of the trip Roger didn’t make and also the fees/equipment/computer money we haven’t spent otherwise NOAA will be suspicious.”-yet another Hadley CRU email

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-76928919881315757712009-11-25T08:31:00.001-08:002009-11-25T10:09:01.414-08:00

"Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise."Warmaquiddick is being largely ignored by the legacy media (several instead have run stories on how the warming is even worse than we suspected, and the danger is far greater!). However, CBS is defying this trend and has run several stories on the scandal, including one by Declan McCullagh which I wanted to

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-84337281978063925882009-11-25T07:45:00.000-08:002009-11-25T08:27:46.356-08:00

"But the most worrying possibility - that this is Southern populist terrorism, whipped up by the GOP and its Fox and talk radio cohorts - remains real."One bad thing about being a pundit is that it often leads you to be so arrogant or confident that you have a hard time admitting you're wrong or that you are sorry for what you've said. Sometimes that happens to me, although I try to always note

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-15070626023166643252009-11-25T07:37:00.000-08:002009-11-25T14:47:00.993-08:00

Last year I wrote about introducing complications to a story. With Snowberry's Veil I used this device every time things were going too well for the main character Erkenbrand. It is an easy method of moving the story along because if things go to well any story just becomes either boring or entirely too short.It can be overdone, of course. I like the movie Armageddon quite a bit, but the last

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-30580522720555913922009-11-25T07:35:00.000-08:002009-11-25T07:37:37.628-08:00

"There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality."-Pablo Picasso

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-7836518339954053442009-11-24T11:21:00.001-08:002009-11-24T11:28:30.505-08:00

"We have already established what sort of woman you are, madam, we are merely negotiating the price."Briefly, I wanted to draw some attention to an article at the Hill which details something voters need to be aware of. There are a few ways you can get people to vote for something they disagree with or consider a bad thing in congress. One is to make a trade: you vote for mine and I'll vote for

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-2453634099161003422009-11-24T10:49:00.000-08:002009-11-25T07:45:50.736-08:00

"Jones says that UK climate organisations are coordinating themselves to resist FoI"Some pundits are calling it "Climategate" which is a pretty pathetic name, and following previously established rules, I think Warmaquiddick is a far better name. By now anyone following the new media, at least the right side of things politically, is aware of a massive scandal involving one of the world's

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-65156946568123393282009-11-24T08:45:00.000-08:002009-11-24T10:48:41.618-08:00

"President Ronald Reagan believed, as a result, that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent"The Republican Party, in an attempt to generate some interest and cohesion in a party rapidly being torn in two by wanna be democrats and conservatives, has released what some are calling a "purity test" for members of the party. If someone wants to run for office

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-88159396801652139382009-11-24T08:43:00.000-08:002009-11-24T08:45:46.790-08:00

This calls for a pile of otter pups.

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-66496360458241579672009-11-24T08:28:00.000-08:002009-11-24T08:41:40.755-08:00

More fun with language. The serving girl is a bit wenchy and rough in her dialect, while the Captain of the Guard is more polished, and the Baron more polished yet - or at least that's my intent. Even if no one really picks that out while reading, it ought to help divide between the different strata of classes in this society more easily.Secret passages are just a classic bit (or "trope") in

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-10190307342156553122009-11-24T08:27:00.000-08:002009-11-24T08:28:12.547-08:00

"If I call myself black I reject the mother who raised me."Tiger Woods

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-8787672277824827862009-11-23T10:44:00.000-08:002009-11-23T10:56:27.355-08:00

"To make soap, first we render fat. The salt balance has to be just right... so the best fat comes from humans."-Tyler DurdenThis is a story I simply could not pass up. "Witches" in Peru luring and killing people to render them for their fat. The story comes from News.Com from Australia:The gang used abandoned buildings in the Amazon jungle and high Andes to clandestinely butcher victims and "

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-84950778534460145712009-11-23T10:43:00.000-08:002009-11-23T10:44:55.332-08:00

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-51682799803579609982009-11-23T10:06:00.000-08:002009-11-23T10:43:28.483-08:00

"If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music."-Gustav MahlerI like classical music. Little of it ends up in the Songs I Like series because not much classical has lyrics I really like, but the music its self is in my opinion, and based upon objective standards of beauty and excellence, the finest form of music on the planet.Classical is the

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-74625121572431200062009-11-23T09:22:00.002-08:002009-11-23T09:43:06.394-08:00

You may have noticed that Stoce tends to store things all over the place. Although that is a major and useful plot device early on, it wasn't intended as a character flaw. I don't actually plan out that much ahead what I'm going to write, I have a very vague concept of how plot unfolds, a story in mind (good vs evil, etc), and the main character.For this one I started with a story adaptation

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25268409.post-74301740463679466382009-11-23T09:22:00.001-08:002009-11-23T09:22:49.203-08:00

"The Climate Conference in Copenhagen is another step forward towards the global management of our planet"-EU President Herman Van Rompuy

Christopher Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03104605722684911443noreply@blogger.com0