Goblin Mercantile Exchange

vestigal pedagogy: Pure Design and Storytelling Design

from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, June 1915: CREATIVE designs by children, from six to fourteen years old, connected with the Greenwich House and the Little Italy Neighborhood Association, were shown in the small class room of the Museum, Saturday, May ist, to Monday, May loth, inclusive. After a mid-week lesson at the settlement […]

Tags: design, history

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The Self-Self-Referential

In an age of unending information, basing one’s work on a past of referentials can seem foolhardy (in America). One, educations are getting worse. Two, even nominally good educations will tend to miss a lot. We are no longer in medieval universities. There is little use (or should this be in quote marks?)” in including […]

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The Generalist’s Hat

(if the meaning of the title of this post is unclear, read this story by Kelly Link. Nothing to do with the post at all, but still worth absolutely reading!) Speaking of unclear, the way that my interests wax and wane has never been something I’ve been able to pin down. They rotate-usually for a […]

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also…

I’m trying to make my blog posts less monumental.

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save the swales!!

David Moles has the definitive word on swalegate as well as a passionate plea for sf’nal content in 2010 not to self-immolate in a cauldron of nostalgia and false-positive victimization and pseudo-religiosity. (I would add R.A. Lafferty to the list of spiritually minded sf writers of honesty, integrity and non-sloppiness.) All I could come up […]

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A Night Inside the Lost Mountain

Goofing around with YouTube, random beat generators, open source sample databases, and poem fragments in iambic tetrameter will lead to this: Definitely the “first pancake is always the lumpiest” syndrome going on here, but there you go.

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The First Apps

A great article on 18th century almanacs as ur-iPhones: By now, I hope you’ll forgive the ahistorical slip that led me to enlist the iPhone as a way of imagining just how resourceful an early almanac could be. It was so much more than a book. Comparing it to the iPhone helps expand our vision […]

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THE PALINOMICON RETURNS

Fair reader, Long have I been dormant on this matter, and indeed, I had harbored the secret hope that the transmissions of this nefarious document were a thing of the past. However, look at me, a fool! How could I conclude that the Palinomicon’s logorrheic THIRST could not be vanquished? For what is the span […]

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What’s on the Table

So, just wanted to ask a few questions: 1. In nominating works for awards, is it ethical to do so with friends? In what instances? 2. Is it ethical to do so consciously, deliberately, and in a block? 3. Is it ethical to do so with members of your writing group? 4. Where is the […]

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Maps by Touch

Research on weird maps led me to this: “…wood was, and is, the most distinctive medium used by the Greenland Eskimos in mapmaking. Blocks are carved in relief to represent the rugged coastline of Greenland with its fjords, islands, nunataks and glaciers, the shapes of the various islands being linked together with rods. In order […]

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really can’t fathom a title for this.

What is geekier on the part of my early nineties self? 1. Writing fanfic based on Moria (a Roguelike) 2. Playing Magic the Gathering with others over a TELNET BBS. (honor system in describing the cards textually). Both on a VAX/VMS system. You decide!

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……….

The paradox of progress is that imagination is always linked to style, and yet it also provides the seed for innovation that changes the face of function. -Bethlehem Shoals * My rss feedification seems to be broken. I really need a new blog platform.

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a Hugo nominee for sure

I can’t wait to watch that documentary about sending Tom Cruise back in time to kill Hitler.

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Palinomicon: coda

This was in my comment spam queue for this blog. Coincidence? Or the colophon of the book of nightmares?!? (which will perhaps rear its head — um, pages — in 2012: *** Hello Id Like to bid you this barbarous apogee ! How relating to we try something a impecunious a handful this without linger […]

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perfect stocking stuffer…

…for the horror fans on your Christmas list!!

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an uncontrolled substance

Consciousness is decay. Neurons are sandcastles.

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House Speaker Seeks Independent Bookstore Bailout Bill

WASHINGTON–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for “emergency and limited financial assistance” for the battered U.S. independent bookstore industry today, and urged the outgoing Bush administration to join legislators in reaching a quick compromise. Five days after dismal financial reports from pretty much everyone, Pelosi backed legislation to make independent bookstores eligible for help under the […]

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Lory pointed to the way that doctors of Islamic law have, over centuries, debated whether or not it is possible to enter into a legal marriage with jinn. Regardless of their legality, such marriages do happen. Men may even marry a jinniyya princess, though in order to do so he must forswear sexual relations with […]

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…..

Just like laughing at one’s jokes, is it bad form to laugh at one’s blog? I was combing through the archives, looking for aphorisms/epigraphs, and came across this post. It feels like it was written 10 years ago but it was less than 3! I forget the original context-something about young writers who made pro […]

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Many times have I started writing this. My iBook is gimped and I still haven’t figured out comments on this fucking blog. It kind of dampens the “exchange” part of this exchange. You have to register on this site to comment, which I want no one to have to do. I can’t find the right […]

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