Jennifer Fallon's Blog
Viewing By Month : December 2008 / Main
15-Dec-2008

A scary step into the future

Somedays, you read the news and think nothing ever changes.

And then you read something like this and realise you've stepped well and truly into the 21st century...

Researchers at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories succeeded in processing and displaying images directly from the human brain, they said in a study unveiled ahead of publication in the US magazine Neuron.

While the team for now has managed to reproduce only simple images from the brain, they said the technology could eventually be used to figure out dreams and other secrets inside people's minds.

"It was the first time in the world that it was possible to visualise what people see directly from the brain activity," the private institute said.

"By applying this technology, it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive like dreams."

The full article is here

Not that they'll ever need a machine to view my dreams.

I'm quite happy to share them with you now...

14-Dec-2008

Inigo Montoya's advice to writers

Copyblogger has just put up a briliant article about the correct usage of some commonly misused words.

I was delighted to read through the list and learn I actually do know what they meant, although I found the afterward/toward versus afterwards/towards argument interesting, because not being a native speaker of American English, I think he's wrong and the rest of the English-speaking world is right.

Oh well... never gonna win that argument.

The list is here. If you write you should read it.

Now... if we could just start a movement to incarcerate all people who say ARKS instead of ASK, ALLS instead of ALL and FILUM instead of FILM, I'd be a happy little muchkin:)

13-Dec-2008

Once more... with feeling:)

The Galaxy Books Bestseller list for this week..

1.  Chaos Crystal (Tide Lords #04)
JENNIFER FALLON
 2.  Moving Targets and Other Tales of Valdemar
MERCEDES (ED LACKEY
 3.  Star Wars: Wild Space (Clone Wars #02)
KAREN MILLER
 4.  Captains Fury (Codex Alera #04)
JIM BUTCHER
 5.  Beyond the Shadows (Night Angel #03)
BRENT WEEKS
 6.  Dead After Dark
SHERRILYN & KENYON
 7.  Way of Shadows (Night Angel #01)
BRENT WEEKS
 8.  Twilight (Film Tie-In)
STEPHENIE MEYER
 9.  Last Watch
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
 10.  Zen and the Art of Vampires (Dark One #06)
KATIE MACALISTER

More childish squeeing on the way...

I love those guys at Galaxy:)

12-Dec-2008

The official dictionary of Ali Pring (Alice Springs, to you non-locals).

Okay... if you live in Alice Springs (or have ever lived here) you will read this and die laughing, because it's sooooo true.

If you've never been here, or met anyone from here, read on and shake you head in wonder. This truly is how the locals speak, particularly if you've attended high school here.

The dictionary was sent to me by Firstborn, who found it on Facebook from someone else who found it on a MySpace page.

The Alice Springs Glossary:

ali pring (noun)
The true way to pronounce Alice Springs. Locals know this. Non-residents call it by it's correct name. Tourists call it "The Alice" which is code for "I am a tourist". Idiot brothers-in-law, call it "The Springs" which is code for "I'm an idiot". :)

as (adverb)
Used at the end of the sentence to add definition to an action eg. "drunk as", "tired as", "gammon as"

bindi (adjective)
Strangely shaped or not working properly

boonted (adjective)
Broken/stuffed/oddly shaped

bruss or brus (noun)
Shortened form of brother to denote a male friend

budda (noun)
Form of the word bruss

budju (noun)
Someone who is attractive/hot/sexy, usually but not always a female

*click* nylah (sound)
Used at the end of a sentence to denote sarcasm

deadly (adjective)
Cool or good

don't be gammon now (adjective)
An exclamation used when you know someone is lying to you.

gammon (verb)
Being false or lying

gammoning (adjective)
The act of being gammon - 'dont be gammoning on me, brus!'

gammon artist (noun)
A liar

go dot (verb)
To fall over

goona (noun)
Decrepitated shit

just gammoning (adjective)
Letting someone know you're just kidding

jus muckin brus (phrase)
See above

lub (adjective)
Love

made it piss (phrase)
Beating or accomplishing a task very easily

made ya piss (phrase)
Beating someone easily, often causing embarrassment

not even (adjective)
An exclamation of disbelief or statement of denial

not even Ted Egan (adjective)
Rhyming slang. See not even

only-muckin-around-brus (phrase)
To indicate jest or ridicule

piece of piss (phrase)
Something that's really easy to accomplish

proper flash or proper good one (adjective)
Describing something that's really flash or special often to differentiate from something less flash

rubbished (verb)
To be corrected or publicly humiliated due to an error of understanding or belief

shame job (noun)
An embarassment

siss (noun)
The female form of bruss

sorry dorri (phrase)
Rhyming slang. To say you're sorry

us mob (noun)
A collective noun for a group of people that includes the person using the phrase

yeah-nah (noun)
Indicating you agree to something negative but also want to add your own comment

yous (noun)
The plural of you

yous mob (noun)
A collective noun for a group of people that doesn't include the person using the phrase

yuckurai or yuckaday or yuckai (sound)
An exclamation

Maybe yous have to be from Ali Pring to find this piss funny, but yous are all budjus anyway!

Aren't you amazed I can write books in English!

11-Dec-2008

Well... here's something I wasn't expecting...

The Immortal PrinceCan you believe this? The Immortal Prince has been shortlisted in the US by the Romantic Times in the Epic Fantasy category of the Reviewer's Choice Awards.

I always thought being nominated for a romance award would be a mixed blessing, but how can you complain when you are on a list that includes such lumiaries as Charles Stross, Kage Baker and Jim Butcher?

I am in shock! I may even swoon...

Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award Nominations
Science Fiction Novel

* DUST Elizabeth Bear BantamSpectra (Jan.)
* ZOE’S TALE John Scalzi Tor (Aug.)
* GALAXY BLUES Allen Steele Ace (Apr.)
* SATURN’S CHILDREN Charles Stross Ace (Jul.)
* HALF A CROWN Jo Walton Tor (Oct.)

Fantasy Novel

* THE HOUSE OF THE STAG Kage Baker Tor (Sep.)
* SHADOWS RETURN Lynn Flewelling Bantam Spectra (Jul.)
* SHADOWBRIDGE Gregory Frost Del Rey (Jan.)
* GOBLIN WAR Jim C. Hines Daw (Mar.)
* CAST IN FURY Michelle Sagara Luna (Oct.)
* FORTUNE AND FATE Sharon Shinn Ace (Nov.)
* KING OF SWORD AND SKY C.L. Wilson Leisure (Oct.)

Epic Fantasy Novel

* PRINCEPS’ FURY Jim Butcher Ace (Dec.)
* THE IMMORTAL PRINCE Jennifer Fallon Tor (Mar.)
* BLACK SHIPS Jo Graham Orbit (Mar.)
* HAWKSPAR Holly Lisle Tor (Jun.)
* THE HERO OF AGES Brandon Sanderson Tor (Oct.)

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