To celebrate New Year’s Eve, here’s everyone’s favorite mad inventor firing 1000 rockets off a bicycle. (For certain values of “bicycle.”)
Happy New Year!
Archive for December, 2017
Colin Furze Shoots 1000 Rockets Off A Bicycle
Sunday, December 31st, 2017Library Additions: Two Michael Swanwick Chapbooks
Friday, December 29th, 2017Put in my yearly order to Dragonstairs Press:
I’ll have copies of both of these available through the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Library Additions: Two Signed Harlan Ellison Firsts
Thursday, December 28th, 2017Two more books bought relatively cheap off ebay:
Library Addition: Signed/Limited Edition of Jack Vance’s Ecce and Old Earth
Wednesday, December 27th, 2017I’d picked up the other two signed/limited Cadwell books cheap, but I needed this middle book to complete the trilogy.
Vance, Jack. Cadwell II: Ecce and Old Earth. Underwood/Miller, 1991. First edition hardback, #107 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket in a Fine- slipcase with one 1/8″ square spot of soiling to spine rear. Hewett, A84. Bought from a fellow Jack Vance collector who was downsizing for $75.
Things I’m Thankfull For: Jigsaw
Tuesday, December 26th, 2017Jigsaw the Golden Retriever, the oldest of my two dogs, just turned 14.
I asked my vet how he was doing for his age. She said “I don’t know. They don’t usually live this long.”
Jigsaw started out as an unrestrained riot of affection and turned into a dog that everyone loves.
Here are a few pictures of him over the years.
With an old dog, you know your days together are limited, and you just try to cherish the time you have left.
Tis The Season
Monday, December 25th, 2017Finally, a video that combines two of the biggest obsessions this time of year:
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Shoegazer Sunday: Stellarscope’s “Silent Night”
Sunday, December 24th, 2017Last year this time I threw Stellarscope’s version of “Silent Night,” and I liked it so much I decided to turn it into one of those “holiday traditions” you hear so much about.
Merry Christmas!
Library Additions: Two Dan Simmons Lord John Press Books
Friday, December 22nd, 2017Lord John Press was an odd press, ranging from small-run SF first editions by Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin and Stephen King to books by John Updike and Gerald R. Ford.
The two Dan Simmons books listed here (of four they did total) were the right author with the wrong titles at the wrong time at the wrong price points and the wrong print runs. Simmons was a hot writer at the time, but these books came after his “miracle year” duo of Carrion Comfort and Hyperion, were not nearly as well-regarded, were post-first limiteds (they didn’t beat the Putnam edition out) at high price points (starting at $125 and going up to $800) in too large a print run for too many states (500 quarter-leather, 250 half-leather, and 26-lettered copies in full leather). And they both came out the same year. They’re nice, but not so awesome as to inspire bibliolust in casual collectors. When I saw those price points and print runs, I went “Gonna pass,” and a lot of other collectors evidently said the same, as these limiteds have littered bookdealer inventories ever since.
I do like and collect Simmons, and I always thought I would pick them up when they got cheap enough. That finally happened.
I also have Entropy’s Bed at Midnight and Summer Sketches, his other two Lord John Press books.
lawrenceperson.com: Now With Added https
Wednesday, December 20th, 2017I finally got off my lazy butt and got an SSL certificate for this blog.
So the official address is now https://www.lawrenceperson.com (note the new all important “s” after “http”).
FYI, my SSL certificate was free through WordPress and the Bluehost folks made the change for me.
Update your bookmarks accordingly, since Google and Firefox are starting to get all pissy about http connections (not that I really blame them).
Random Microsoft Word Linking Tip
Wednesday, December 20th, 2017Having problems with links not going to the Heading you linked to in Microsoft Word?
Here’s a random tip that may help.
Do not put slashes in your headers (“Sales/Marketing”). The header will appear just fine, but links may not work properly. Mine were jumping back to the title page for no apparent reason.
The solution is to:
- Remove the slash from the header (“Sales and Marketing”)
- Cut the text with the defective link
- Paste Special as unformatted text, and
- Add the link again to the corrected header.
It should work now.
I’m using Microsoft Word for Mac Version 15.37. Can’t say what other versions the bug may affect.