Don – Page 83 – DONFOOLERY

Not for Counting Anymore

Using animals to grow human body parts has been done, but how about using a live sheep for dialysis? The idea comes from one design student Revital Cohen. The project she’s calling ‘Life Support’ seeks to use a sheep whose genome has been spliced with a human to produce human blood. The transgenic sheep then becomes a dialysis machine for diabetes patients, filtering their blood as it frolics in pastures during the day, then gets needles shoved in its head each night.

Chapter XXXV

The best birthday presents a writer can get, and I got them both today: a new 600-page leather journal from the wife and a contract for the story I mentioned a little while back.

And it’s not even 9:00 AM yet.

I’m waiting on some non-writerly news as well, though it could impact my writing. You’ll know when I (and my wife, and several of my friends) know.

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Edited to add: Sent the contract back and I gots the money!

“Please give me one more night…”

Part of a vignette by writer Tony O’Neill…

“One More Night” by Phil Collins comes on. Ron cranks the volume and bops his head dreamily as Phil implores, “I’ve been trying so hard to let you know… let you know how I feel…”

Which Ron, you ask?

This Ron…

Russert Was One Thing

…now this?

Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty words and the demise of humanity, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday. He was 71.

May Scorecard

Perhaps there was a deeper, more subconscious reason I haven’t blogged in weeks…

Rejections:
Submissions:
Acceptances:
Publications:
Circulating:

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0
0
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3

Happenings on the “life outside writing/blogging/anything artistic” front have been flying. News on those if/when things germinate. For now, here’re some things I’ve been meaning to post for the past month…

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Now what am I supposed to watch on Sunday mornings?

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[Michael] Chabon defends mass entertainment against the accusation that it is merely a formulaic product. At times it is; yet commercial culture’s focus on deadlines and profits can also act as a “quickening force” on an artist’s imagination. He demonstrates this with discerning essays on Arthur Conan Doyle, Will Eisner and Howard Chaykin, all of whom, like Chabon himself, attained the ultimate goal of the “pop artisan”: a delicate balance between “the unashamedly commercial and the purely aesthetic”. He disagrees with those who equate literary entertainment with mindless escapism, passive consumption or unproductive activity (“guilty pleasures” is “a phrase I loathe”). Instead, he finds that different forms of writing offer distinct satisfactions to an alert reader.

3
It’ll probably still be a while before you can neurointerface directly with the internet or your friends and lovers, but psychologists are testing implantable brain ‘pacemakers’ that regulate brain activity and so far appear really useful for treating the most stubborn forms of depression.

But we can dream, can’t we?

4
Some people may think that a monk is somewhat reclusive — kind of isolated, in a bubble, meditating all day. But it’s quite the opposite. I’m on the computer, e-mailing. I’m driving, using cell phones and using Facebook. I have my own Web site.

Maybe becoming a monk isn’t so bad after all.

Governor Ah-nold Should’ve Been the First Clue

With the launch of a new communications satellite, the British military has completed a highly advanced network that will allow robotic military units to be controlled at long range. Sound vaguely familiar? They actually named the thing Skynet. When the T-1000s come knocking, keep an eye out for the ‘Made in UK’ sticker.

“You need a MONTAGE!”

Why I’ve Been Busy

The Scene Book: A Primer for the Fiction Writer

The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet: Occasional Outbursts

Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing

Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Really Short Stories

Reading is Fundamental

I haven’t gotten to do any Unvarnished Reviews in awhile. I’ve actually been reading collections fast enough that I haven’t had time enough between books to review every single story I’ve read.

But thanks to goodreads, I can at least tell you what books I’ve finished lately…