kestrell | Recent Entries

I'm currently on an Angela Carter binge, because the entire time I was death-marching through Eugenides’s _The Marriage Plot_ (which struck me as a "St. Elmo's Fire" for literature snobs), I kept thinking, "Well, he's no Angela Carter." Carter is still one of the few writers who managed to write novels which featured subversive female protagonists while also being dark, funny, literate, and original.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/25/card-from-angela-carter-review?CMP=twt_gu

Also a link to an article about the psychology of games
http://alum.mit.edu/pages/sliceofmit/2012/01/24/diy-iap-mit-gaming/

Kes: This book is available to blind readers through Bookshare.org, as is a modern short story collection loosely based upon Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, Kate Atkinson's highly enjoyable _Not the End of the World_
review at
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article861914.ece

Not relevant for my blindness, but this could well turn out to be the first widespread use of stem-cells, especially considering that the number of people with age-related visual impairments is supposed to double in the next decade or so.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/01/23/145636849/stem-cells-show-promise-as-blindness-treatment-in-early-study?ps=sh_stcathdl

I've been known to complain about theatrical interpretations of "The Tempest" which use Caliban as a victim of colonialism, because I think it's been done too often, but I guess it's still pretty controversial in Arizona, so I retract any of those complaints I've made in the past. Also, I love the way censorship is spun as an attempt to quote help unquote eliminate racist speech: reducing racism through censorship has, historically, been so effective, hasn't it?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ethnic-studies-book-ban-arizona-include-shakespeare-tempest-article-1.1007105

WTF?
http://www.themillions.com/2012/01/a-journey-to-planet-x-margaret-atwoods-in-other-worlds.html

Kes: I don't think I agree that the intention of language is always to communicate information clearly, considering how much poetry, plays, songs, and other works created by wordsmiths tend to play with and exploit ambiguity in language; it seems to me that ambiguity must, to some degree, be intentionally cultivated, as opposed to an arbitrary circumstance.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/ambiguity-in-language-0119.html

So far this year, I have been spending more time offline, reading good books. This has largely been my attempt to counter my first ever experience, at the age of forty-five, of severe depression (it seems some percentage of women with no history of depression experience it during menopause). So, I'm taking the drugs, doing the therapy, and reading. I figure that reading saved my life when I was a kid, and it would probably be the best medicine now. There was a lot to enjoy in this article
The Joy of Quiet
By PICO IYER
Published: December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-quiet.html

but I particularly liked this bit:

block quote start
None of this is a matter of principle or asceticism; it’s just pure selfishness. Nothing makes me feel better — calmer, clearer and happier — than being in one place, absorbed in a book, a conversation, a piece of music. It’s actually something deeper than mere happiness: it’s joy, which the monk David Steindl-Rast describes as “that kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.”
block quote end

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/sunflower-concentrated-solar-0111.html

Now I want to knowmore about Roman board and dice games
http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2012/01/a-roman-brothel-token.html

The Edwardian Ball
http://edwardianball.com/
is an event which celebrates the work of Edward Gorey. I would be suspicious of the sofas.

That's how my screen reader pronounces "fatale." The mental picture which immediately popped into my head is of Bugs Bunny in drag doing a send-up of noir with a cartoon Bogie.

The NFB Jernigan Institute is pleased to announce the NFB Early Explorers Program. This program is designed to introduce young blind children (ages birth to 7) and their families to the long white cane. Through the program parents will receive the tools, support, and confidence needed to become their child’s first cane travel teacher. Providing children with an early start to independent movement and travel ensures that children will be more confident and curious travelers throughout life. Families participating in the program will receive a free child-sized white cane, Travel Tales (a quarterly e-newsletter), an informational DVD, and so much more!

To learn more about this exciting program, or to register, please visit

www.nfb.org/earlyexplorers, e-mail earlyexplorers@nfb.org, or call (410) 659-9314, extension 2418.

Help us spread the word about the importance of early movement and cane travel for young blind children by telling the parents and families you encounter about the NFB Early Explorers Program!

“NFB Early Explorers is made possible in part through a grant from the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust”

Linked to from the Harvard Bookstore Facebook page
http://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=217455568328493&id=126894987384552&refid=28&_ft_qid=5685217398179131508&_ft_mf_story_key=-80945844862870954&_ft_filter=live&_ft_interface=m_basic&_ft_c=m

http://www.instructables.com/id/Rubiks-cube-chest-of-drawers/

And it even comes in a coffin-shaped container!
http://mcstevens.com/coffincafevampirebrewbloodredhotchocolate.aspx

Oo, men with glasses on library ladders...I wish this came inbraille...
http://menofthestacks.com/

Current Location: aerye

Sorry about the previous incorrect link, although I like to think that Klingons are probably total Lou Reed fans
http://specgram.com/CLII.2/06.wells-jensen.klingon.html