"Good Landing"

Somebody on the Bujold Listserve was asking about the post-Columbia Disaster fic I posted there back around 1/03. So I was more than happy to direct him to it's current location: http://www.sabledrake.com/2003/0305_good_landing.shtml

But it served to remind me that I really need to get off my arse and work with Jim on my website, so all my stuff will be in a central location. I guess I'm going to have to start e-mailing copies of all of it from work, and burn it onto CD's so it doesn't get lost during the next virus attack.

NEWS FLASH! Car dealers are liars!

Well, duh. But the extent of how much they are liars is nothing short of breathtaking. Read here and see:

http://edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/42962/article.html

Summary: If you have to buy a car, buy it over the Internet. If that's not possible, buy it from a "No Haggle" dealer. If that isn't possible, then research, research, research. And be prepared to be as much of a hard ass as the saleperson is.

Did my 500 words

Still don't have a real plot for UC, but I at least mananged to write a page and a half at lunch about Tez and Maria taking a post-coital bath. Whee.

On the down side, pewtergryphon dumped me from her friends list. :-(

Manga observation

Flipping through this month's Shonen Jump and reading the latest installment of Hikaru No Go, I'm forced to confront a question. What the fnord is it with manga villians and their obsessions with being the "Best" at incredibly trivial life goals? Okay, Naruto wants to be the best Ninja, to overcome his stigma of being born of a fox demon. Luffy wants to be the best pirate because-- Well, he's an obvious loon, so it doesn't matter. Kaiba in Yugi Oh, OTOH who seem ready to go to murderous lengths to master a fucking card game? Who gives a rat's arse about beating him to save Grandpa's soul? Just call the damned police and get him arrested for attempted murder (you can't tell me all those murderous games in the "Death T" facility weren't taped for Kaiba's amusement.)

Okay, Hikaru No Go isn't the best example, given that Hikaru's obsession with finding out what the deal is with the nimrod kid who claims to know little about Go but can kick his butt is actually understandable. Nobody likes a shark.