It's a tiny bit blurry, but I like it anyway

Squid-thing with a shawl-thing



I needed a break from writing quizzes, so I drew that little guy with some colored pencils I bought when I was in NY. I think maybe I should've turned another light on, because it's pretty dark in here, and now my head hurts.

Earlier tonight, I worked a little bit on a scarf I'm knitting for myself that's sort of ocean-colored. Mine isn't striped, so the squid creature and I won't match, but his shawl is nice, too.

I have a seriously geeky bookshelf

I just stumbled across this list of geek novels and realized I own a bunch of them (the ones in bold):

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham

I must have a thing for geeky novels, because these are some of my all-time favorite books.

New York Times silliness



This New York Times article is about how business people are drowning in unnecessary email. After reading it, I noticed the "email this" button at the top of the page. I love the idea of sending an unnecessary email about unnecessary email. If this story shows up on the "most emailed articles" list tomorrow, I will laugh a lot.

UPDATE: Aww, look, I got my wish:

People are so silly.

Compromising my principles

"I'll never move back to New York. I hate winter too much." -- me (about a thousand times since moving to L.A.)

Hah. I think I'm moving back in December. Just in time for what, again? WINTER.

"I'll never join Myspace. Social networking sites are an invasion of privacy."

Well, lookee here. Yes, I feel like a total sell-out, but I went to a teen media conference last week and realized that every teen in the world is on Myspace. Since I make a decent part of my living writing for teens, I figured I better at least see what it's all about.

Escalator fears
As much as I love technology, I definitely relate to Paul Davidson's fear of escalators. I appreciate that rather than just ranting, he suggests practical solutions, such as:

Harnesses for all escalator riders – at the first sign of getting your foot caught and chopped off by the sharp stairs, you will be whisked up into the air as if a parachute just opened.

Escalator rider chaperones, who will assist you in placing that first foot on a good place on a good stair (i.e., they’ll make sure both feet are placed centrally, away from the sides or the edges of the stair).

Escalators are freaky, but I don't like elevators either. In fact, they scare me even worse, because I don't like being trapped in that little metal box. Good thing I'm okay with stairs, or I'd have to live my entire life on one level.