Happy belated birthday to ekeppich, and happy birthday to jinxed_wood and chickenfried_jo. May all three of you enjoy many happy returns of the day!

And R.I.P., Patrick Swayze. *raises a toast in memory* "Wolverines!"

I quite enjoyed my recent visit to the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville. I was impressed with the McConnell Scholars and very pleased with the seminars in which I participated. I was also gratified by the attendance at and kind reception of my public lecture. (It was wonderful to see bouncybabylemur again - thank you for the fantastic bookmarks! - and lovely to meet raven_moon.) I was interviewed by the Center's podcast while I was there, and I'll soon be recording a new version of my lecture for StarShipSofa. Despite my wheeze, I felt the visit was a success, and I'm grateful for the Center's invitation and hospitality. (Speaking of my breathing, I am still fighting the long-lived asthmatic bronchitis with which H1N1 left me, but I'm beginning to think I actually may survive it, after all!)


I also have a few links to share:

* Cory Doctorow has completed his unabridged narration of his novel Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. His reading is available for free download here.

* Librivox has added an unabridged reading of its "Short Science Fiction Collection #26, which includes classic stories by the likes of C. M. Kornbluth, Walter M. Miller, Jr., and Fredric Brown, among others.

* io9 has posted its "Guide to 2009's Fall DVD Releases."

* Lastly, thanks to agentxpndble for the gift of my glorious new icon. At the moment I'm working my way through all the episodes of the pioneering SF-Western steampunk series The Wild, Wild West and loving every moment of it. Artemus Gordon truly is one of the greatest television characters of all time.


"Yes, our nation's history might have turned out quite differently if Jim and Artie hadn't quashed all that evil post-Civil War R&D: steam-powered robots, disintegration force fields, miniaturizing potions, primitive tanks and TVs, paintings that serve as gateways to other dimensions. And don't forget the surgically implanted crystals that drive men to crime. And the special liquid distilled from burning diamonds that generates superhuman speed. And the jars that extract thoughts from disembodied brains.... Long live Jim and Artie, in their train bound for trouble."
- Louis Bayard, "Re-Viewed: The Wild, Wild West," Salon.com