iPod help

My music library got wiped out on my regular computer. I still have all the songs on my ipod, though. Anyone know how to put them back onto my computer? E-mail me.


Fun in the sun
















A sudden downpour in the metro area yesterday evening during rush hour caught a lot of people by surprise, but was a nice break from the stifling heat. Here's one of the local bus stations.

Hope y'all have a good weekend and good weather. (In the case of yesterday, the rain kind of was good weather! But not for the dude in the photo.)

I will put some more photos of poor soaked commuters on the weather blog if I get a chance at some point. That blog could use an update, no?


Agreeing to disagree

A friend of mine wrote me angrily saying that she doesn't understand how I could have liked "Jersey Girl." Well, I thought it was a good movie. We'll have to agree to disagree.

Someone else complained that I don't post my political opinions here. Maybe someday, but do you really need to hear what I think of the flag burning amendment when 60,000 other bloggers are spouting off about it? Go read dailykos.

Interesting

What would you do if you were in a foreign country and didn't speak the language, and someone stole all your money and ID? It just happened to Dutch blogger Jan in France, and he posts about it.

Three things of interest to probably nobody except media types

1. I only just learned that thirtysomething fiction writer Curtis Sittenfeld and thirtysomething nonfiction writer Seth Mnookin are cousins. Who knew? Well, maybe lots of people, but I didn't.

2. Dawn Eden gets into a wee-weeing match with Gawker in her post today.

3. A lot of public relations people have been phoning me at work lately and starting with the question, "Do you have a quick second?" Is a 'quick second' faster than a regular second? How slow is a slow second?

Disclaimer: PR people are just doing their job, and some of them are sometimes useful

Trivia

Trivia went well tonight. Thanks to all who came out.

The winning team name was "Norfolk & Chance." Neither I nor my co-host got the joke until we pronounced it out loud.

View askew

Pretty good article about Kevin Smith & "Clerks II" in the Sunday NY Times. Although I disagree that Dogma was a good movie, and Jersey Girl a bad one. JG is underrated.

Construction near my office

I'm always a bit worried about construction projects that leave doors to nowhere.



This reminds me of the classic poem recited by Ed Norton on "The Honeymooners":

As he stepped out into
the cold night air
little did he realize
the fire escape
was not there


I like the wall across from it better.




Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
Robert Frost


Combonym of the day

Gawkward - What some of us have been since about when we hit puberty.


Trivia tonight

Extra prizes to be had: Tickets and merchandise related to the Putnam County spelling bee musical. Yay!

Oh.

I just realized that every time I hear a song on the radio a lot and don't know who sings it, it's Matchbox 20!

Monday, Monday

Every other day, every other day of the week is fine.

Yeah.

I had a very nice weekend. Hope y'all did, too. Back to work.

A hot night in the life of a chick-lit author

Last night, I visited a celebration for Sarah Mlynowski's new young-adult book.

That's Sarah, signing said book.



At the reception, I traded info with writer friends.

Then I hiked uptown to meet a college friend. The sun was setting.




. I saw my college friend, whose reflexes are apparently still whip-fast.

Then I headed home on the subway. Th' end.

Are you ready for the summer?

Are you ready for the summer?
Are you ready for the good times?
Are you ready for the birds and bees,
the apple trees,
and a whole lot of foolin' around?

I think that song's from the movie "Meatballs," which everyone in my first grade class saw except for me. Luckily, it was shown on cable 8,888 times.

Anyway, summer starts today at 12:26 p.m. You've made it! Congratulations!

It's already very hot, which will mean air conditioner overuse and blackouts. Yeah, I know they fixed the problem, but thousands of simultaneous air conditioners can't be good.

Today's date is significant for another reason. "Clerks II" premieres in exactly a month. I love writer/director Kevin Smith's dialogue and sense of humor, so I am quite looking forward to it.

Non-secret project

A while ago, I said I had a secret project that I would reveal on May 1. Well, I never really had time to work on it, and probably won't have time for a long time. Too much else to attend to.

But here it is. At least it's a place for my photos.

Check out the "towns" link. NewJerseyIsBeautiful.com.


'Chick lit is here to stay'

...says U.S.A. Today in the article below. Good! Cuz I've got a book ready...

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2006-06-20-chick-lit_x.htm

Ah, summer

I re-discovered this link to my pix of a short road trip to Upstate NY. Summer mornings can be lovely.

Trivia

I will be hosting trivia with a friend (I'm not sure if I can reveal her name here; I have to ask her first) next Tuesday, June 27, at 7:30 p.m. Come play if you can!

But you can also play tonight, Tuesday, June 20. Neil and Jon B are hosting.

Here's the linkage, if you are unfamiliar with team trivia at the Baggott Inn in the West Village: http://www.dempseyspub.com/trivia.html

Note Bene: There will be no trivia on July 4.


Everyone loves a wiener

Recently, I went to a baseball game. The company was excellent. Unfortunately, said "company" did not find his hot dog equally excellent. He promptly lobbed 11.5 inches of his disgusting foot-long hot dog to the ground. I thought hot dogs were supposed to taste better at a baseball game?

I always enjoy the electricity and atmosphere of America's pastime, the green of the field, the shine of the lights. And my pretzel was excellent. Much better, apparently, than the wilted wiener.

Scam artists

When I was at the Book Expo a few weeks ago, I picked up a card for a company and it said, "I don't want people to die with a book still inside of them."

Ow, that would hurt. But really, there are several companies around to take advantage of writers' dreams: Including scam publishers and scam agents. I can't even imagine the thought process: "Hey, let's find people out there who have a dream, and rip them off by falsely leading them to believe we can make their dreams come true."

One popular bait-and-switch goes like this: An agent will advertise that he or she is looking for new writers. (Real agents do NOT need to place display ads desperately seeking writers.) Then they send you a letter back saying they love your book, and for $1,000 they will send it out to editors. Or even better, they say that if you use such-and-such editing company to get your book in shape, for a pretty penny of course, they will represent it. They are in partnership with the editing company.

Recently, a list has been going around of the "20 worst agents." One agent got so incensed that she's on it that she successfully shut down a website mentioning her. Someone else wrote about it on a blog:

Remember Barbara Bauer, that horrible old harridan and scam agent who tried to get me fired because I reproduced the Twenty Worst Agents list and she was on it?

Apparently Barbara Bauer made a screaming, abusive phone call to one Stephanie, the person who owned the web host. Bauer claimed that having AW's scamhunters post her email address at AW was illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)...

For more discussion:

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007577.html

Note: I do not believe that the company that had the "book inside them" quote was itself a scam publisher; it seems like it just offers tips. I thought their sloga was cute. But there are scam artists out there.

Agents should not charge you for representation. The way they make money is: They love your book, they sell your book, and THEN they get 15 percent of the profits. You don't pay them up front. That's why they're picky about what they take on.

Lazy Sunday

Enjoy yours!

The exciting conclusion

More stuff that was on my camera for weeks...

One night, I walked home from work in the wee hours. I literally shook when I saw this:



My usual weekend fun:



Yeah, I felt really threatened...



Sic 'em, Lassie.

Books

Ned Vizzini's new novel is being reviewed Sunday in the Times Book Review. That's swell!

It looks like it will be a beautiful weekend. The sun has come out to kiss you all with his big yellow cheeks. Enjoy!

Am I on candid camera?

My young adult novel is tentatively called "Paper and Fire." So anyway, just now I went to my office mailbox and there was a package in it. I opened it and in it was a published novel called...Paper and Fire!

It's just a coincidence. But, ergh. It's not similar at all (this one's about Iraq), and titles aren't copyrighted, and the title is generic enough that it can be used a few times. Still, it had me goin' there for a second. It was like I just wrote a book, and here's a copy of it in my box...

Pigthkin

One of the trivia team names at Wed trivia last night was "Ben Toothlessberger."

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.

The broadcasters of your area in voluntary cooperation with the federal, state and local authorities have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency.

If this had been an actual emergency, the Attention Signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news or instructions.

This blog serves the tri-state area.

This concludes this test of the Emergency Broadcast System.