http://tomecat.com/madtimes "To be sane in a mad time is bad for the brain, worse for the heart." - Wendell Berry Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:53:30 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en While I waffle over whether or not to post reviews of sexually explicit graphic novels on a blog that my mother reads (Just one of many neurotic reasons why I'm months behind in posting book reviews. This blog isn't called "Mad Times" for nothing. ;-), you can get your book ... http://tomecat.com/madtimes/index.php/2008/08/06/book-reviews/ She won't drink water out of her dish, but has to drink out of our water glasses. Or the water that has flowed through the roots of the wheat grass. Good thing she's cute. http://tomecat.com/madtimes/index.php/2008/08/02/grass-water/ Peaches should not be crunchy. Insert rant about insanity of optimizing food to survive an epic journey from tree to mouth rather than for something crazy like... I don't know, taste maybe? http://tomecat.com/madtimes/index.php/2008/07/24/produce/ Sightline drew attention today to an article that points out that for an expensive stretch of road, the cost of building the road cannot be recovered from the gas taxes generated by traffic on that stretch of road. It's kind of a specious argument since road funding is kind of ... http://tomecat.com/madtimes/index.php/2008/07/23/paying-for-roads/ Clever Cycles sells cargo and city bicycles and related gear in Portland. I visited them about a year ago just after they first opened the store. I just heard that they're closing. Not for good, just for a two-week vacation. In the middle of summer. A bikeshop. Are they insane? ... http://tomecat.com/madtimes/index.php/2008/07/04/clever-cycles/ Our IT guys have been rearranging the network at work the past few weeks. I got an email asking if it was okay to change the IP address on the machine named "hugo". Hugo is a Sun Sparcstation 10 that was assigned to me in about 1993. It runs SunOS ... http://tomecat.com/madtimes/index.php/2008/07/02/computer-demise/ The kids got lolled again. Actually I think this is Theo's first time on icanhascheezeburger. http://tomecat.com/madtimes/index.php/2008/06/18/more-lols/ God and the Devil make a wager over whether the Devil can corrupt God's chosen champion with the fate of the world as the stakes. The good news is that God cheats. Or at least interprets the rules creatively. Joby is a little boy obsessed with King Arthur. Joby is ... http://tomecat.com/madtimes/index.php/2008/06/01/the-book-of-joby-by-mark-j-ferrari/ This book appeared on my chair at work one day. I later found out it landed there because a friend found it in the company cafeteria, started it and didn't like it. It wasn't bad. It's the third book in a series about a guy who's part alien and uses ... http://tomecat.com/madtimes/index.php/2008/06/01/bitter-waters-by-wen-spencer/ Wilson won the Hugo for best novel for this book. If you've read any of his other books you know the basic structure of this one: baffling technology indistinguishable from magic mysteriously appears throwing society for a loop with the story told by a person conveniently placed to learn more ... http://tomecat.com/madtimes/index.php/2008/06/01/spin-by-robert-charles-wilson/