Author: Don

OPP: Other People’s Publications

This is on my goodreads “to-read” list and should be on yours, too.

Ben Tanzer, Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine

I met Ben at a reading he gave here in I-town a year or so ago for his first book, Lucky Man. Nice guy whose day job is in the field I worked in back in a past life. Anyway, this promises to be a good one, and based on my experience with Lucky Man, I’ve got no reason to doubt it.

Admishuns FAIL!

fail-owned-pwned-pictures
see more pwn and owned pictures

This sort of shenanigans is why grad school is going to get put off for another year. And when I say, “put off,” I really mean, “put back on my original time-table.” So, the plan is to brush up on some math courses (mostly paid for on the company’s dime) and, if things look good, I should be in. Should be. It’s a gamble–I was never, ever promised a spot in the program of my choice. But as far as gambles go, I think I’ve got a better-than-even shot.

The upside is, of course, I’ve got another year free to write!

June Scorecard

Um, there is no June Scorecard. I’d spent the month studying for the GRE and finally underwent the ordeal yesterday.

I guess I need to update the Trading Card in the menu bar–I know what program I want to go for next.

Anyway, the program I want to apply for** at the local Big Red school on the Hill doesn’t state their minimum GRE requirements. My scores can only be described in one word: Meh. But I know from my Intarweb research of other programs that my scores are more than good enough.

On the other hand, I’m still waiting to see my latest story go live. Why don’t you keep an eye out and read what’s already there while you’re waiting. You won’t regret it!

**There’s a story here, but I’m not gonna tell it until certain things become definite.

Google Disease

io9 might be afraid to call this site Google Disease(tm), but I’m not.

HealthMap brings together disparate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health. This freely available Web site integrates outbreak data of varying reliability, ranging from news sources (such as Google News) to curated personal accounts (such as ProMED) to validated official alerts (such as World Health Organization).

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!