Reading in the dark
Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Kestrell" journal:[<< Previous 10 entries]
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10:02 am
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I love you, Dorothy Sayers
I am currently reading Dorothy Sayers's introductory essay to her classic anthology, _The Omnibus of Crime_. My favorite passage of the day is written in regard to the fiction of "That voluminous writer, Mrs. Henry Wood," of whom DLS says: "Whether her problem concerns a missing will, a vanished heir, a murder, or a family curse, the story spins along without flagging, and, though she is a little too fond of calling in Providence to cut the knot of intrigue with the sword of coincidence, the mystery is fully and properly unravelled, in a workmanlike manner and without any loose ends."
"...calling in Providence to cut the knot of intrigue with the sword of coincidence..."--that is high-quality literary snark.
If you are interested in acquiring the etext of _The Omnibus of Crime_, go to archive.org and type "Dorothy Sayers" in the edit field, then select "texts" from the combo box. You will find a Daisy format ebook, which you can either keep as a Daisy ebook or, after unzipping the files, extract the .xml file and then change the extension to /html and read it in whichever browser or device you wish.
Tags: books 2012, mysteries
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06:40 am
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For the history fangirls
Fuck Yeah History Crushes !!
http://fuckyeahhistorycrushes.tumblr.com/
Although I am very disappointed not to find my personal historical crush, Lord Monckton Milnes, whom Carlyle dubbed the "perpetual President of the Heaven and Hell Amalgamation Society."
Tags: fangirl, history
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09:47 am
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Shut up and take my money already
That's the meme Alexx told me about this morning while I was grousing about how I would really like to give the musician my money, if only the MP3 of his song was available through quote legitimate unquote means, as opposed to having to convert the YouTube video to MP3 as it is the only source I could find for the single. This is the second time this happened to me this week, and it's only Wednesday.
Tags: waiting for the 22nd century to happen
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09:43 am
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My cell phone is mocking me
It keeps turning on driving mode, where everything is at full volume, and when I try to tell it to deactivate, it just gives me the time. Voice recognition: still not perfect.
Tags: assistive tech will make you crazy
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09:05 am
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MIT: Free talk on stained glass
Gallery Talk with Roberto Rosa
When: Friday, May 11, 2pm
Where: Institute Archives (14N-118)
In conjunction with MIT Libraries'
Glass at MIT: Beauty and Utility exhibition,
http://libraries.mit.edu/sites/exhibits/glass-at-mit-beauty-and-utility/
Roberto Rosa from
Serpentino Stained Glass
http://www.serpentinostainedglass.com/Serpentino_Stained_Glass/Home.html
will discuss stained glass art and artists, and his work in the restoration and conservation of historic stained glass.
Rosa has restored windows in some of America’s most prominent buildings including the Massachusetts State House and Trinity Church in Boston. Most recently, he was the chief conservator for thirteen opalescent glass windows at Salve Regina University in Newport RI, designed by John La Farge.
After Rosa’s talk there will be time for questions and viewing the exhibit in the Maihaugen Gallery. This event is free and open to the public.
For more information, please contact:
maihaugen-lib@mit.edu
Tags: art, mit
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07:08 am
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New book on women in theCarolingian period
I thought this might be of interest to my SCA friends
_Women and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World_ by Valerie L. Garver (Cornell University Press, 2012)
Tags: books 2012, history
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06:15 am
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EASI offers online course about creating accessible ebook formats
FYI: the cost of the course is $350
from the e-mail announcement
block quote start
Creating accessible EPUB, PDF, Word DAISY, audio content and converting between formats
This is a 4-week, EASI course stressing how to make accessible content in
many formats while primarily using authoring tools you already know and
use.While the course has been primarily about creating accessible document
content, this offering
will include an understanding of commercial e-book formats and mainstream
e-readers. Course participants need this background before moving on to
learning how to author accessible e-books in these formats.
Because we are only starting to integrate these insights into the course,
we will be making changes on the fly. The new content will be in a trail
format this time as we think through how to integrate it into the course.
Join me in May and be among the first alternative media content providers
to get astart at the important changes that are coming and which you will
have to understand within the foreseeable future.
We will try to focus on the features that make a document fully accessible
and help demonstrate how to do this using your familiar authoring tools.
*** Course begins May 7.
Read more about the course online and you can also register online:
http://easi.cc/workshops/text.htm
block quote end
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tags: accessibility, ebooks
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01:08 pm
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Boston LGBT Film Festival to host "Science Fiction Night"
The Boston LGBT Film Festival will be May 3rd - 13th. Check out this year's Highlights and Events. We hope to see you there.
For more details, visit: http://www.bostonlgbtfilmfest.org/special-events
May 9th - Wednesday
Sci-fi Night & Reception
Brattle Theatre
7 - 8:30 Outland, Part I
8:30 - 9:30 CasablancaReception
9:30 - 11 Outland, Part II
Join us for Sci-fi Night with a hilarious Australian comedy tv show that revolves around a gay science fiction club. Following Part I, join us at Casablanca for drinks and free apps. Finish the night off back at the Brattle for Part II.
( more special events listed below )
Tags: film, media, queer, science fiction
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06:20 am
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Getting what's offline online, or, Feel my pain, children
A post in which a media studies professor describes the results of an assignment in which college students had to find a print resource not available online and then scan it, run it through OCR, and upload it to the Internet.
The big epiphany: it's hard!
I don't think you need to be teaching media studies to find this an interesting assignment, as it would also demonstrate how little non-mainstream, non-bestseller, and indie literature is not online, and how that would shape what people read, and even what people are aware of as potential reading.
http://noteonmydoor.blogspot.com/2012/03/counterintuitive-digital-media_21.html
Tags: accessibility, etexts, media studies, usability
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06:41 am
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Make your own anti-alien thought control helmet!
http://www.stopabductions.com/
from The Art of Darkness blog, which has a
post discussing the difficulty of sifting parody of crazy-talk from actual crazy-talk
http://www.shadowmanor.com/blog/?p=13761
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There’s a concept known as
Poe’s Law
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poe%27s_Law
which posits that, unless you state specifically that you’re kidding, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that someone won’t mistake for the real thing. I think that idea should be expanded beyond religious fundamentalism, because I’m still not sure whether the Stop Alien Abductions site is serious or not.
block quote end
I'm a little disappointed to discover that Edgar Allan Poe is not the origin of Poe's law, because that would have thrown an extra crazy-spoke in the insanity wheel, but I realize that most people are less willing than I am to live with ambiguity and paradox.
Now, please excuse me--the books are whispering to me (Oo! does that make me The Book Whisperer?).
Tags: science fiction
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