Archive for the ‘Lit’ Category


2008 – Mike in Review, Part 2: Lists

Mike Lawton on January 3, 2009 in Lit, Movies, Music No Comments »

Top Artists (according to Last.fm):

  1. Flogging Molly
  2. Gogol Bordello
  3. Great Big Sea
  4. Dean Gray (Green Day mashup DJ)
  5. Corb Lund
  6. Captain Tractor
  7. The Free Design
  8. Blink-182
  9. Death Cab for Cutie
  10. Jack Johnson
  11. The Flaming Lips
  12. Dropkick Murphys
  13. Rancid
  14. Feist
  15. Dungeons & Dragons podcasts

My Top Tracks (according to Last.fm):

  1. Big Audio Dynamite – Rush
  2. Great Big Sea – The Night Pat Murphy Died
  3. Webb Wilder & The Nashvegaans – One Taste Of The Bait
  4. The Flaming Lips – Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
  5. Scissor Sisters – I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’
  6. Gogol Bordello – Sally
  7. Trace Adkins – Honky Tonk Badonkadonk
  8. Flogging Molly – What’s Left of the Flag
  9. Ian Tyson – This is My Sky
  10. Tenacious D – The Metal
  11. Dean Gray – Boulevard of Broken Songs
  12. Montgomery Gentry – Gone
  13. Flogging Molly – Sentimental Johnny
  14. Dean Gray – Dr. Who on Holiday
  15. John Michael Montgomery – Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)

Movies I saw that were released in 2008 (not necessarily the best, just some of the more memorable; in no order):

  • WALL-E
  • The Dark Knight
  • Kung-Fu Panda
  • Iron Man
  • Cloverfield
  • Quantum of Solace
  • Mamma Mia
  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
  • Horton Hears A Who
  • The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
  • The Incredible Hulk
  • Hellboy II: The Golden Army
  • Forgetting Sarah Marshall
  • The Forbidden Kingdom
  • Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
  • Semi-Pro
  • The Ruins
  • Be Kind, Rewind
  • Futurama – The Beast With A Billion Backs
  • Tropic Thunder

(If I tried to remember ALL the movies I watched last year, it would take me until the end of ‘09!  The most watched movie of the year was a tie between WALL-E and Shoot ‘Em Up, 3 times each.)

Some of the best stuff I read in 2008:

  • The Happiest Days of Our Lives, by Wil Wheaton
  • World War Z, by Max Brooks
  • Crooked Little Vein, by Warren Ellis
  • The Gunslinger Born (The Dark Tower Graphic Novel)
  • G33k Mafia, by Rick Dakan
  • Godel, Escher, and Bach, by Douglas Hofstadter
  • Y, The Last Man, series
  • Transmetropolitan, series
  • The Boys, series
  • Planet Hulk/World War Hulk, series
  • Punisher MAX, series (Garth Ennis’ run)
  • Wanted, series
  • Wizard’s First Rule, by Terry Goodkind
  • Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
  • Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card
  • Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, core books and supplements

Teh awesomist tubes on teh internets:

Favourite Online Video of 2008:

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Favourite Video Game of 2008:

Tie: Guitar Hero III and Portal

Literary Linkage

Mike Lawton on August 2, 2007 in Brain Stretch, Lit No Comments »

I think I’ve posted about this before, but it’s cool enough to get my attention again. I love this idea, and it sounds like a perfect way to chew through some of those classic stories I’ve always meant to read.

I used to always have 2-4 books on the go at any one time; typically one good engrossing fiction to read before bed, one way-over-my-head intellectual/science/philosophy book to read during the day when I needed to stretch my brain, and sometimes a light biography/memoir that was like an easy conversation. Don’t always have time for all that these days, but I’m signing up for one of these books right now (I’ve wanted to read Flatland since I first heard of it as well).

Thanks again for the head’s up Wil!

via WWdN: In Exile by wil@wilwheaton.net (Wil Wheaton) on Aug 02, 2007


I’m having a bad day. There, I said it. Details will not be forthcoming, but if you were wondering why I may seem like Captain Crankypants, now you know why.

However, I still came across something that’s so totally awesome, I thought I’d share with my usual enthusiasm:

DailyLit sends you bite-sized chunks of public domain books (including many classics) daily, on weekdays, or three times a week via email or RSS — for free. Each serving takes less than five minutes to read, and if you want, they’ll send you the next installment right away if you click a link. The whole idea is to read short segments for a few minutes in your spare time.

When you find a book at DailyLit, (via Title, Author, or Category) it tells you how many parts you’ll be subscribing to, so you can get a sense of how long it will take to finish the book, and what kind of commitment you’re making. I’ve subscribed to Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, which I’ve meant to read for an embarrassingly long time. It’s 37 parts, and I’ll get it three times a week at noon, just in time for my lunch break.

(Via Cool Tools)

Happy Sysadmin Day, Should I Send Myself Virtual Flowers?

Mike Lawton on July 25, 2007 in Geek, Lit 1 Comment »

Being the resident unofficial techie of my friends, family, and now office, I’m going to allow myself an extra 3d6 minutes of blogging, screwing around with Ubuntu, and randomly flipping through Userfriendly archives.

Geek-break begins… well… I guess about 5 minutes ago when I started writing this.

ahhhh…

 

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth

via WWdN: In Exile by wil@wilwheaton.net (Wil Wheaton) on Jun 24, 2007


I just finished reading Cory Doctorow’s Locus Award-winning novelette When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, which has been made freely available for all of us to read at Baen’s Universe.

It’s the first story I’ve read in ages that I read completely without stopping, and the first full-length story that I think I’ve ever read in its entirety online. Cory is one of the very few authors who inspire me as well as entertain me, because he tells great stories like this one.

"Someone Comes To Town, Someone Leaves Town"

Mike Lawton on July 3, 2007 in Lit, Tech No Comments »


I am currently devouring a fantastic novel by Mr. Cory Doctorow, “… a blogger, journalist, and science-fiction author who serves as the co-editor of the blog Boing Boing.” The story itself is wonderfully unique, gloriously dissectable, and positively glowing with the love Cory has for his home town (and my former stomping grounds) Toronto.

A large part of the narrative involves wireless networking technology, a topic for which I have a passing interest, though no actual skill or knowledge to speak of.

But it gives me a nice segue (I wish I had a nice Segway) into this article from Lifehacker on a few fun things I can do next time I get around to tweaking my network…

Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Network Utilities

via Lifehacker on Jun 08, 2007


networktoolsheader.gif

Looking at the history of computing, anyone can see that it wasn’t until some brilliant folks connected a couple of computers together that the real fun began. Countless tools let you do all sorts of network trickery, many with their roots at the Unix command line. But forget arcane command line tools. Today we’ve picked out 10 of our favorite, free, point and click software applications and webapps that help you make the most of the giant web of connected computers that is your network.

Toronto In The Future? Maybe They’ll Finally Fix The QEW!

Mike Lawton on May 29, 2007 in Lit No Comments »

There’s something cool about reading a book and being able to identify the setting… of knowing exactly what the place they’re talking about looks like because you’ve been there. It puts you in the story on another level. And one of my favourite cities on the planet (one that I’ve spent a bit of time in) happens to feature in quite a few fun stories…

Fantastic Toronto: sf from T-O

via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow on May 29, 2007


Cory Doctorow:
Fantastic Toronto is Karen Bennet’s massive, wide-ranging bibliography of science fiction, fantasy and horror works with some or all of the action set in Toronto. I LOVE reading stuff written in my hometown — and I’ve even written a bunch of it. Link