Linkee-poo, some get drunk on demon-rum and some get drunk on glory

Happy birthday to the Girl Scouts, fine purveyors of sugar-crack cookies since 1917.

Terri Windling shares several songs from some of my favorite performers (Alison Krauss and Sarah Jarosz, the last I'm just discovering). Also, they're good examples of why I love folk music, the full range from story, to jamming, to evocative. All we need is a train song and we'd be complete. Whenever I listen to good folk I want to write fairy stories steeped in deep mountain forest green and lit by blue moon light. "I buried my heart in a willow tree, you came along and gave it back to me." Fuck yeah. And now I really yearn to write a short that's been banging around my head for a few years based on "The Demon Lover."

And here is where I realize it's been months since I've listened to folk music. Time to rectify that omission. Time to feed the beast.

The Collected Cat Rambo. Congrats on that deal, Cat.

If you've been anywhere on the internets with past weekend, you can't miss the passing of Jean Giraud (aka Mobeius). If there is one person who is responsible for the look of SF post 2001, it's this man.

Jay Lake waxes rhapsodic about characters with backstory. Notice he's not saying you need to include all the backstory, but that older characters come with history and preconceptions. While younger characters also have those, if you look at the world, younger people are more flexible than older folks. Sometimes we have things so fixed in our minds because of our experience, it's hard to see around those boulders. The easiest way to get these in the story is to make oblique references (like the mission briefing in Return of the Jedi), but the better way is to show how those experiences shape the character and their response. Or, as I say at work, this ain't my first time to the rodeo.

Any advanced civilization is indistinguishable from nature. It's a take on Clarke's Law, and not one I agree with. While our future seems to turn on more biological integration, I wouldn't say everyone would make the same choice (hell, even we are having a discussion, in a sideways manner, about that direction - note the political consternation over biotech, greenhouse emissions, stem cell research, medical advancements). (Grokked from Tor.com)

Vince brings to us examples of why being on Facebook may not be a good idea, especially if you're a douchebag.

I doubt it'll actually change much, or that Cuccinelli will actually be hurt by it, but the VA Supreme Court has finally shut down his witch hunt against Dr. Mann. It always amazes me that the people who scream the loudest about government waste and frivolous lawsuits are typically the very ones who waste government resources and file frivolous (and groundless) lawsuits. It's like the alcoholic who decries the availability of alcohol at the corner bar and then dares you to stop them before they drink again. (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)