the equation that I add up to, And all of the things I thought I knew

[greygirlbeast]

Does it seem to anyone else that LJ has been kind of quiet lately? I've noticed it mainly in fewer comments to my entries. I hope this isn't a sign of some great exodus to MySpace. Right now, I'm mirroring the blog over there, but I'd truly hate to think it's actually The Shape of Things to Come. Between the seizure-inducing adverts and the general meat-market atmosphere, I can't imagine it ever becoming the main site for this journal. I just don't think I could make that switch. Anyway...for those reading this from Blogger or MySpace, here's a link to the elf pr0n photos I posted last night. I was entirely too tired to mirror the entry. Comments welcome. I mean, I do read them. Often, I reply. Some days, they even help me keep my head above the rising water.

Though this latest issue of Sirenia Digest was especially difficult to get out, it also seems to have had the fewest difficulties on the distribution end of things compared to past issues. By the way, next month — well, actually, this month — Sirenia Digest 12 (which may also be counted as issue #11 or #13, depending how one chooses to count these things) will include one solo piece by me and a new collaboration with Sonya Taaffe (sovay). I very much hope that it will be out by the 21st. By the way, Herr Platypus says that anytime November 2nd should happen to fall on a Thursday, it's very good luck to subscribe to Sirenia Digest.

I had no idea that Ray Bradbury's short story "The Homecoming," long a favorite of mine (and the basis for his 2001 novel, From the Dust Returned), had been released as a hardback illustrated by Dave McKean. I spotted it last night at Borders, and it's frelling gorgeous.

Still working at the second reading of House of Leaves. Chapter IX, in which Danielewski manages to construct a labyrinth from text and footnotes (and the footnotes that some footnotes require).

The weather, which had warmed up a bit, is turning cold again.

Not much to be said for yesterday. I grow tired of posting daily word counts, as I'm sure you've grown weary of reading them. There was a documentary on the sinking of the Andrea Doria. Dinner from the deli at Whole Foods. Too much candy I shouldn't have eaten. Fun with Hubero. A perfectly humdrum sort of day.

If you've not yet pre-ordered Daughter of Hounds, Amazon.com is still offering it bundled with Alabaster for a mere $27.70.

That's it for now. I need more candy...

Comments

[stsisyphus.livejournal.com]

I'd truly hate to think it's actually The Shape of Things to Come

Oddly enough, I came over to LJ after already having an MySpace page. I've actually met two pretty interesting people solely from myspace; on the other hand, I've had to sift through countless webcam girls, crappy bands, business ventures, and such. Yes, it is a very ugly interface; but I think the prevalence of the site is lending weight to its business utility as a marketing and advertising tool. Howl to the uncaring heavens all you want, I think we've probably got at least three to five more years of MySpace. Will it make it to the twenty-teens? Probably not, but Corporate America would have come up with something even more gaudy in the meantime.

Incidentally, I have RL friends who have scored more ass off MySpace in the last year than in the last ten combined. Meat Market sometimes not so bad.

I keep hoping I'll get a chnace to release a new and revised edition of Tales of Pain and Wonder, if only because Meisha Merlin made such an awful mess of the tpb

Well, I was about to order at least some version of ToP&W offa Amazon (along with DOH & Soul Kitchen and a few other things) - what were the problems with this edition?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, I have RL friends who have scored more ass off MySpace in the last year than in the last ten combined. Meat Market sometimes not so bad.

This may well be. Meat markets have their place. But that doesn't make them compatible with the fundamentally solitary act of blogging/keeping online journals. And that's one of the gripes I have with the "place." It's the ineviatble Wal-Mart of internet interaction (that's three ins). It means to be all things to all people, and make a lot of money in the process (though, I am aware that MySpace has yet to make very much money for anyone). In the process, I fear it will undo many sites, such as Blogger and LJ, which were already doing some of those things far better.

And I hate the sense I get that people are flocking to MySpace because it's hip. It's not, of course. It's merely popular, and the popularity is mainly due to its accessibility to people who likely never would have considered blogging otherwise. I suppose it all makes sense. MySpace may be succeeding because it so resembles the deafening, gaudy media overload that confronts almost everyone on a day-to-day basis. That hideous interface is familiar. Here's an internet as cluttered as the thoughts of any teenager or college student, the web for ADD and AADD and whatever else a short-attention span is being called these days.

Okay. I'm ranting. Sorry. Sometimes the momentum just gets the better of me...

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

what were the problems with this edition?

Had I not been so busy gibbering about MySpace, I'd have remembered to answer this before. Here's the thing: there were problems with the Gauntlet hardback. My main goal, other than keeping the book in print and finding more readers, with the MM edition was to fix those errors. A great deal of energy was spent on proofreading. Then, for some reason I've never been able to discover, the corrections were ignored. Worse still, many new errors somehow crept into the text. I think the MM edition is actually described as the "preffered text" or "corrected edition" or some such, but it's not. Add to this the garish, artless cover and you have an edition I wish had never happened.