Reading in the dark
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Kestrell" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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12:25 pm
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Father Cthulhu has eyes everywhere
http://theanticraft.com/archive/samhain08/heseesyou.htm
Tags: dark arts, eyes
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10:50 am
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Kindle to have talking menus, larger fonts, more accessibility
Posted to the Daisy Talking Books mailing list
Amazon's Kindle to get audible menus, bigger font
By Jessica Mintz
Associated Press
Posted: 12/07/2009 01:55:11 PM PST
Updated: 12/07/2009 03:47:24 PM PST
SEATTLE <http://amazon.com>Amazon.com will add
two features to the Kindle e-book reader to make
the gadget more accessible to blind and vision-impaired users.
Monday's announcement comes a month after
Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., and the
University of Wisconsin-Madison said they would
not consider widely deploying the device as an
alternative to paper textbooks until Amazon makes
it easier for blind students to use. Both
universities bought some Kindles to test this fall.
The Kindle has a read-aloud feature that could be
a boon to blind students and those with other
disabilities including dyslexia, but turning it
on requires navigating through screens of text menus.
Amazon said Monday it is working on audible
menus, which would let the Kindle speak menu
options out loud. It's also working on an
extra-large font for people with impaired vision.
The additions should reach the Kindle next summer, Amazon said.
Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the National
Federation of the Blind, said Monday that the
organization doesn't know enough about the new
features to say whether they adequately address
concerns of the blind community. But, he said,
it's a good sign Amazon is expressing commitment to improve the Kindle.
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Tags: kindle access
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10:42 am
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New dual screen ereader device offers both e-paper and LCD
plus a bunch of other whizbang features which make me think of a science fiction film
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/business/06novel.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
Tags: ebboks, ereaders
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03:38 pm
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Not getting a new prosthetic for Christmas
For the past couple of weeks I've caught myself occasionally singing "All I want for Christmas is my right eyeball" (yes, I *know* it doesn't scan, get over it) but, after spending yesterday at the Lahey Clinic, it seems that is not going to happen. The surgeon did not do that little procedure
(squicky details in this post http://kestrell.livejournal.com/541426.html ) but I am on antibiotics and the steroid Prednisone
Prednisone has some of these side effects (I was already experiencing the side effects before I looked them up and confirmed them):
• sleep problems (insomnia)
• dizziness or lightheadedness
• flushing of face or cheeks
• increased sweating
• sensation of spinning
The silver lining here is that I am not overly worried about
• problems with your vision .
I do feel like thinking is kind of hard though, so I'm really glad I finished most of my holiday shopping earlier this week so I won't be stressing about that (and perhaps Father Cthulhu will bring me some cool eyepatches for Christmas). Also, LJ user issendai was kind enough to give us a ride to the clinic, which made the day a lot less gloomy, and the weather! I spent most of the time outside just repeating, "Wow!" and I really felt like it was a small mercy considering the monsoon that was going on yesterday morning.
After the appointment, issendai and Alexx took me to Trader Joe's, my first time, and yes, I believe that baked goods are the world's best pick-me-up, along with people who will spend an hour describing all the goodies at Trader Joe's (thank you to the incredibly nice employee who works at Trader Joe's and seemed dedicated to trying to find me all sorts of delicacies to tempt me). Let me just say, prahlines are kestrell crack (but, although the Trader Joe variety is really good, I think real pralines still need to be made by someone who has lived in the South).
The non-silver lining aspect of yesterday's visit is that the eye issues are not going to be resolved before Arisia, and at my next appointment I will, at the very least, be having another in-office procedure, and possibly have to discuss more drastic measures, like whether my immune system is rejecting the sklera transplant http://kestrell.livejournal.com/515040.html .
Also, I'm less certain that I will be up for attending Arisia and won't have a clear idea until my appt. on Jan. 7.
Now I need to go eat something so I can take another pill.
Tags: health, prosthetics
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09:19 am
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Make your own scarey snow globes
Via the Art of Darkness blog, this how to on making your own horror-theme snow globes
http://naughtysecretaryclub.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-love-to-create-halloween-snow-globes.html
--I can definitely see a creepy arctic wasteland with giant (to scale) albino penguines, a la Lovecraft, or even a creepy snowman with a shiny knife and a Freddy Kruger pattern scarf, sort of "Calvin & Hobbes" meets "A Nightmare on Elm Street."
Tags: dark arts, horror
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09:27 am
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Arisia '10 Access: Physical assistants + accessible art show
1. People with disabilities attending Arisia who wish to bring a
physical assistant may request a ribbon which will allow the assistant
to go anywhere the attendee goes. If the physical assistant never
leaves the side of the person with the paid membership that they're
assisting, they can get a free "adult-in-tow" membership, otherwise if
they wish to occasionally explore the convention on their own, they
should get a paid membership
Note: An "adult-in-tow" option has been added to the online reg form.
2. The accessible art tour is scheduled for Saturday from 4-5 p.m. Arisia will be providing cotton gloves for anyone wishing to touch artwork which has been specifically designated by the artists. Artists are also welcome to be present to describe their work. We'll try to keep descriptions short so we can get to as much of the art show as possible.
Both of these announcements have also been posted to the Arisia '10 Access Services Web page http://2010.arisia.org/Access .
Tags: arisia access
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08:42 am
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Colonial Gothic
I had to read quite a bit before it became clear that this is an RPG and not some mad history professor's interpretatioin of the American Revolution; I would definitely have bought it if it was the second one, but I thought perhaps one of my friends would find this cool.
http://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Gothic-Rulebook-Richard-Iorio/dp/0979636108/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259847413&sr=1-17
Tags: horror
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01:48 pm
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Tactile books and an ebook reader for kids
First, this announcement from National Braille Press about a couple of holiday specials on tactile board books for little kids
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/BB-MONKEY.html
which has me wondering why there aren't any such books for the gothling child, perhaps _10 Cranky Crows_? It could start something like "Ten cranky crows (that's sixty scratchy toes) took a walk on a cloudy day..." Already I like it better than cutesy chicks and monkeys.
Second, ScrollMotion is going to be releasing the Iceberg Reader for kids: this
Publishers Weekly article
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6708308.html?industryid=47139 .
says a lot more about the new format for the iPhone, but what I thought was notable was the ability for people to create audio recordings of readings. That and some of the other features could make this a nice format for readers with print disabilities, although the true accessibility of this format and other apps on the iPhone is still somewhat dubious.
Tags: accessible books, ebooks
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06:32 pm
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Neil Gaiman on audiobooks
from this morning's NPR morning show
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120769925&ps=cprs
At a little over seven minutes, there is only so much discussion that can happen in a segment, but Gaiman makes some nice points, such as reading on audio is not a new thing and that some critics's definitions of reading composed explicitly to rule out audiobooks as a legitimate form of reading are not always very robust.
I myself would often prefer the text version of a book because I find listening to someone else's voice reading to me changes the experience, but I will listen to books read by particular readers--Neil Gaiman for one, Doug Bradley for another--and I also love audiobooks that play with the form, either intentionally or accidnetally. The first audiobook I fell in love with was, okay, Tim Curry reading Anne Rice's _Cry to Heaven_, a magnificent audio recording with bits of Italian opera included. But there was also Neal Stephenson's _The Diamond Age_, because I thought having my computer read me a book about a book which read itself aloud to a little girl was the stuff of pure fantasy. Another great audiobook: _Soon I Will Be Invincible_, which alternates chapters between a comics-style supervillain and a new female superhero, and the voice actors were so incredible that I can't even imagine the print book being better.
Do other people have audiobooks with which they have fallen in love?
Tags: audiobooks, reading
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03:53 pm
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Random book-related fact of the day
The Hotel Denouement from the Lemony Snicket books is based on
this hotel in NYC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Hotel
which uses the Dewey Decimal System to organize it's rooms.
I now know the location of my personal Disneyland.
Tags: bibliophile
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02:20 pm
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Re sweaters: I'm allergic to cute and fuzzy
Someone on my Dreamwidth journal asked about materials and it occurred to me that I should mention that I am allergic to the fuzzy kinds of wool, like those from rabbits and goats. I think I am just allergic to cute.
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11:06 am
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Sweaters
I don't know what happened--maybe my room intersects with an alternate dimension--but I used to have a pile of sweaters suitable for wearing indoors, and now I have three, and one of them recently got eaten by the aerye, and neither of the other two are black.
So if anyone is wondering what I would like for a holiday gift: black sweaters or hoodies suitable for wearing indoors would be sincerely appreciated.
And if any of the alien beings from that alternate dimension who are wearing my sweaters intend on sending them back: please wash them first.
Tags: wishlist
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09:07 am
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Access: FM receivers and accessible art at Arisia 2010
1. The New England Folk Festival has offered Arisia the loan of two hearing-
assistance transmitter/receiver sets, which will be made available to attendees on a first come, first served basis.
However, if people have their own FM receivers, they can bring those and they'll be
able to pick up the transmission.
We are working on a list of panels and GOH events at which these transmitters might be of the most use, but if attendees have specific requests, please feel free to send them to access@arisia.org and we will do our best to make it happen.
Note: the transmitters can only be set up in rooms with augmented sound (microphones, amplification, etc.).
2. We are also working on offering an accessible tour of the art show, including providing description and the ability to touch the art. Arisia will be providing cotton gloves for anyone attending this event, and we'll have more details closer to con. If possible, it would be great to get an approximation of how many people would be interested in attending this tour so that we can provide enough gloves. You can e-mail us at access@arisia.org .
Also, I wanted to thank all the artists who graciously agreed to participate in this event: thank you!
Tags: accessible art, arisia, sound
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08:08 am
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See? Bruce Sterling agrees with me
in his commentary
http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2009/11/henry-jenkins-notes-on-interstitial-arts/
on Henry Jenkins's observations on genre in his intro to the new _Interfictions 2_ anthology so, go read it
http://www.interstitialarts.org/essays/jenkins_on_not_belonging.php .
Tags: genre, henry jenkins, interstitial
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01:53 pm
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The history of mail-order book purchasing
Has anyone written about this topic? I was reading another rant about
the lost pleasure of book browsing
http://blogs.nybooks.com/post/212201723/the-lost-pleasure-of-browsing
which frames the mail-order purchase of books as a relatively new innovation, and yet I seem to have assimilated the idea that in past centuries many established book stores sent out catalogs and did mail-order business. In a history of witchcraft which I recently read, it was at one point mentioned that, for those who lived anywhere other than large cities such as London, they would have had to have ordered their books on the occult from London bookshops. And certainly through the early twentieth century American readers were still often ordering books from across the pond.
Yes, browsing bookstores is a pleasure, but it seems poring over catalogs of books is also a well-established pleasure, and I know some booksellers still send out such paper catalogs.
Tags: books, media studies, reading
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09:40 am
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Review: The Wide, Carnivorous Sky by John Langan
That. Was. So.[Expletive]. Cool!
It was only a couple of weeks ago that, prompted by Hal Duncan's incredible essay on the state of vampire fiction
http://www.bscreview.com/2009/11/notes-from-new-sodom-on-blood-bad-boys-and-bottoms/
I posted
http://kestrell.livejournal.com/542802.html
about how vampire stories hadn't done anything for me since the '90s.
I take it back--Langan's story "The Wide, Carnivorous Sky" is an amazing piece of fiction.
Langan stories are the literary equivalent of three card monty: you know the ingredients, you think you know where they are going to land, but then Langan makes a few hard-to-track passes and blam! you're left feeling dazed and kind of awed, asking yourself, how did he do that?
A while back I wrote a review of Langan's novel _House of Windows_
http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_langan_houseofwindows.html
and I've been jonesin' for more of Langan's fiction ever since, so when I heard that he had a novella in the vampire anthology _By Blood We Live_ available through Baen Books Webscription ebooks
http://www.webscription.net/c-66-new-arrivals.aspx
I hunted it down and got a copy.
Good call, Ripley.
The dialogue in this story is exceptional, and most of the story unfolds through what the quartet of main characters say to one another. The vampire is not gay, not in existential angst, not remotely human--he's Nosferatu with a fucked-up makeover that updates his look for the 21st century.
But what really tickled the cockles of my media studies heart was the many media references Langan slips in. This is one of the ways in which Langan manages to shake up the vampire story, because there is none of that old cliched pretense that anyone in the group needs to have a vampire explained to him: they have the rich and eclectic language of 21st century media fans in which to define it, describe it, and discuss dispatching it.
I don't want to say much more about the story, because it is full of wonderful little surprises, but there are other aspects of the story which make it very current and relevant, and if there are any professors out there looking for a fast-paced vampire story to add to their syllabus, "The Wide, Carnivorous Sky" should instigate some lively discussion.
Tags: horror
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10:19 am
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100+ works by women writers of horror and supernatural fiction: Part 2
BSA= Bram Stoker Award
1. Poppy Z. Brite, Lost Souls (1992), Drawing Blood (1993), Exquisite Corpse (1996) http://www.poppyzbrite.com/biblio-books.html
2. Nancy A. Collins Sunglasses After Dark (1989, BSA), Midnight Blue: The Sonja Blue Collection (1995)
3. Ellen Datlow Inferno (BSA, Shirley Jackson Award), two BSAs for Year's Best SF and Horror
4. Tananarive Due Joplin's Ghost (2005)
5. Fran Friel Mama's Boy and Other Dark Tales (2008, Dark Scribe Reader's Choice Award)
( continued below cut )
Current Location: aerye
Tags: horror-women writers
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06:02 pm
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100 women writers of horror and supernatural fiction: Part 1
100+ works of horror and supernatural fiction by women writers
1. Clara Reeve The Old English Baron (1777) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5182
2. Ann Radcliffe The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3268
( continued below cut )
Current Location: aerye
Tags: horror-women writers
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05:44 pm
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A list of 100 women writers of horror and supernatural fiction
I've been working on this project to create a list of 100 women writers of horror and supernatural fiction, which has already climbed to something more approximating 110. The first 50 or so are listed in basically historical order, from the gothics of the late 1700s to the works of the early 1990s, with the second part focusing on contemporary writers and being listed alphabetically.
Part of my motivation was to materially demonstrate that there is an unbroken line of women writers who have contributed significantly to the genre of horror. Another motivation was to try to discover possible threads, reoccuring themes or subjects.
The former is fascinating because it shows how women writers who came along later would respond to the influence of writers who came before: Radcliffe influenced Shelley, Joan Aiken influenced Kelly Link, Sarah Orne Jewett infleunced all sorts of writers (including Willa Cather) and was herself influenced by Vernon Lee, and Vernon Lee probably gave Henry James some of the ideas which he adopted regarding the psychology of ghost stories.
As for themes and subjects: from the time Clara Reeve wrote _The Old English Baron_ (1777), these women writers represented the best and brightest, women often very openly committed to women's rights and the rights of other groups who often had no public voice in the society.. To some degree, the ghosts of women and the various records of crimes against women created a secret history that women maintained in a public medium, but could always dismiss as a mere fiction, an entertainment. The characters who show up again and again include: the vengeful father, the suffocating lover, the demon lover, the guardian, the ghost who comes from the past to warn or hint at some terrible secret, often the violence committed toward a woman or a child. With _Jane Eyre_ comes the madwoman, and with Leonora Carrington's "The Debutante" comes the young girl whose double (later assimilated into her own dark side) was the wild animal, often a wolf.
I'll post the first half of the list after this post.
Tags: horror-women writers
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10:49 am
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Demo of NetEcho, an accessible phone-based Web application
News Wire:
On Monday, November 23 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard time, Larry Lewis, President, Flying Blind LLC www.flying-blind.com will be demonstrating netECHO, an accessible, phone-based web application that enables individuals who are vision impaired to perform a number of tasks using the world wide web.
netECHO, developed by InternetSpeech www.internetspeech.com allows its subscribers the ability to use either a land or cellular phone line to access its server and issue commands through the sound of one’s voice or via the telephone keypad. netECHO is the perfect solution for users who do not own a PC or mobile device as well as a desktop or mobile screen reader, or for users who do own such devices, but wish to have a secondary alternative for dealing with the complexities of a graphical operating system.
( more details below cut )
Tags: accessible browsers, accessible cell phones
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