Linkee-poo has no fear 'cause London is drowning, and I live by the river

I thought about putting this at the end, but I didn't want it buried. In case you think that with London burning (instead of calling), the middle east trying to kill each other as quick as possible, the downgrade and stock market "corrections" that there wasn't any good news in the world, you haven't checked out Jim Hines's blog yet. It's always life affirming when good things happen to good people. You need to bottle that up, Jim. Save some for the lean times. (oh, and by the way, w00t!).

One week left in the Todd Wheeler Summer Reading Program. Wish I could have participated, but this summer (like the last year and a half) has been crazy. Thank Brid for audiobooks or I wouldn't be consuming much fiction at all.

David B Coe with a few things writers shouldn't worry about. In short, write what pleases you and then see if you can sell it. Don't worry about the back end. Plus, I'm still chuckling over Harry Potter and the Blood-Oath Internship. I believe John Grisham already wrote that one. (Also, another post on being "too fringe.".)

Elizabeth Bear with a "it gets better" video. Not hers, but it's pretty good. Everybody has a story. The pressure cooker of middle school and high school can make it seem like the small group around you is the world. Their petty power games and Lord of the Flies psychology will flood around any wall until it seems unbearable. Christ, how will it ever change? But it does. And it does get better.

On that note, during her GoH Speech at World Fantasy, Terri Windling made the comment that all writers she knew went through some scarring tragedy. It is the shaman's (and many religious ascetic's) journey. To go beyond the world and return (the spiritual death which is sometimes mirrored by near physical death). At the end of the journey you can see it's price and gift, but it's a real bitch in the middle of it. Hopefully the gift is more than worth the journey.

As Tobias Buckell points out, bitcoin is going down. When Dan first pointed me to bitcoin I saw some distinct vulnerabilities (not the least of which is counterfeiting and theft) and figured it would only be time until it fell from it's perch. I'm not totally writing it off (the Euro crashed a few years after it's launch), but I don't think it's going to be a major player.

Some thoughts on the riots in England.

In case anybody wants to bang on President Obama's poll numbers, the other side has worse numbers. Congrats, conservatives, you're back down to the 30% or so bedrock support (these are people who will love what you're doing even if you ate children with imported Mexican salsa while pre-empting "American Idol"). About the only anomaly I've seen so far is Nancy Pelosi is still polling under John Boehner.

Giving due. As I remember, W didn't even go to one transfer. Who understands the costs of decisions?

And one final note, for all those people who cried, "Justice is Dead!" when the prosecution failed to make it's case against Casey Anthony, this past week saw Warren Jeffs found guilty and the Danziger (Bridge) 6 found guilty. The system errors on the side of caution (most times) as it was designed to do.