I encountered, puzzled, some new security regulations -- you have to have your photo taken before entering the departure area of Gatwick Airport, which meant that, landing at Gatwick from Scotland, we got off the plane, then lined up, one by one, while the person at the front of the line stood in front of a camera, then we were given a piece of paper with a bar code on, we walked down a short corridor, handed in the piece of paper to someone collecting them, and walked out into the concourse going "what on earth was that about?".
NEIL! IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY TELL US WHAT THE FLAMETHROWER WAS FOR!!!*panicked with curiosity*
It is the mystery that lingers, and not the explanation. (I'll put the explanation, and a link, at the bottom of this entry, though.)
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http://www.cafepress.com/speceng is John M. Ford's cafepress shop. He sells cool things including (with a cut to the CBLDF) a Map of Neverwhere. Well, sort of. (And you can read his Cosmology at http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007074.html#007074.)
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One of the good things about being out of range of everything was I got to listen to a few podcasts that have been sitting on my iPod. I really enjoyed the They Might Be Giants Podcast -- http://www.tmbg.com/pod.html; had slightly more mixed feelings about the Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant make fun of Karl Pilkington podcast at http://www.guardian.co.uk/rickygervais, but did laugh a couple of times. Having said that, I was impressed by the technical stuff in Ricky's podcast -- the pictures that came up, the subtitles and suchlike.
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Meanwhile, Diane Duane wants feedback -- she's thinking of publishing a novel in a new way, and wants opinions -- http://outofambit.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_outofambit_archive.html#113446948274092674
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More Year's Best appearances for Anansi Boys. http://www.bordersstores.com/features/list.jsp?list=best2005sf is Borders...
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/12/10/023315.php is blog critics...
http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2005/12/life-in-world-cant-be-so-bleak-aka.html is Jenny Davidson's list. (I like her blog.)
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Dear Mr Gaiman, Greetings from Singapore! You kindly autographed two t-shirts for the Cat Welfare Society and even did a little clip on sterilisation for us when you were here. We're going to be auctioning the shirts off for Christmas at http://catwelfare.org/auctions starting 14th December. If you could mention it on your blog, I would be eternally grateful (not that I'm NOT already eternally grateful for the shirts, clips and for Sandman among other things - I may be greedy, but never ungrateful!). If you'd like to see the little grainy clip (from my little camera) it's at www.catwelfare.blogspot.com under Links.
A very Merry Christmas to you and yours. Regards,Dawn
I'd forgotten that I drew that cat cartoon on the shirt for you. I hope it helps a bit... ( http://catwelfare.org/celebs4cats/)
I thought you might be interested to know that in the MMORP game Urban Dead (urbandead.com), you have apparently made an appreance in the zombie infested city of Malton: http://www.urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=286937. I suppose it's ridiculous to bother you to sign a book under such circumstances. Thanks for all the stories.
You're welcome. I'm glad I have axe proficency...
Patrick Marcel wrote to mention that MirrorMask won the public prize at the Utopiales Festival at Nantes -- http://www.utopiales.org/.
Lots of Australians wrote to complain that Sony seems to be currently releasing MirrorMask in Australia secretly, or at least secretively.
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Stardust should be shooting by April. The script moves a lot faster through the first couple of chapters of the book, is very faithful to the middle, and is a lot more exciting and nailbiting than the book was as it heads towards the end, but as I assured Holly, who called to ask, it's definitely not "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Stardusts".
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It was a man walking down a gravel path with something like a huge industrial version of this -- http://www.flameengineering.com/Red_Dragon_Propane_Torch_K.html -- an organic way to get rid of weeds.
(Oh, you say. Is that all? I thought it would be more exciting. Indeed, I say. Goodnight)