Well, this is disconcerting...

Just read on CNN that a bomb was found in a San Francisco Starbucks, but fortunately it was disarmed.

Disappointed, Bill?

Seven and the ragged tiger...

I've been tagged by CmdrSue, which is just as well, since I'm embarassed by my Joseph Heller-level amount of output (I'm talking volume, not quality, natch), so let me take one of those memes and run with it...

Seven Books that I Love

1. King Suckerman, by George Pelecanos: All of Pelecanos' work is at worst compulsively readable, and in his best book, a crime thriller set in the 70s, he's even funnier and cooler than Quentin Tarantino makes himself out to be.

2. Weaveworld, by Clive Barker: Simply the most engaging fantasy/horror that I've read.

3. Vurt, by Jeff Noon: A mindblowing mixture of organic cyberpunk and hallucinogenic imagery.

4. Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut: Hell, it's really hard for me to pick a favorite Vonnegut, and I don't even think this is the one I come back to the most, but it's a fine representative of his books, and besides, what kind of father would turn his only daughter into an outboard motor?

5. Choke, by Chuck Palahniuk: I've said before that Palahniuk writes the kind of books that I wish I could write, and this is my favorite of his. To me, his most consistently funny work, with his best (and sickest) throwaway gag of his all books. (It's the one about the baby chicks.)

6. Misery, by Stephen King: I was a huge King fan growing up, and for all the talk about how he was the master of horror, this was the only book of his that actually gave me nightmares. I also managed to sneak this in a high school yearbook photo, so it's a sentimental choice.

7. Deathbird Stories, by Harlan Ellison: I don't know if a short story collection is cheating or not, but this has Adrift off the Islets of Langerhans on it, which may be my favorite short story of all time, so here it is.

And I'm sure I'll think of another seven that'd make me look smarter as soon as I post this.

More to come if the mood strikes me...

1/1/06

My grandmother told me one time that the way you acted on the first day of the new year would be the way you acted all year.

So, in 2006, I will be bloated, gassy, lazy, uninspired, sleepy, and fuzzy-headed.

Actually, that sounds pretty good.