Sunday, June 21

It's Father's Day in the USA, so felicitations to all USA-ish males with living offspring.

It's also Caine's birthday everywhere (International Date Lines notwithstanding), which means that he's on the cusp of Gemini and Cancer, which tells you pretty much all you need to know about my faith in astrology.

However, those of you who are (of legal drinking age and) so inclined, raise a toast to your favorite Amoral Sociopath Who Hasn't Been Born Yet at some appropriate time of the day.

Hardcore fans will, of course, do so with Caine's spirit of choice, Laphroaig.

The 10 year old, that is. The 15's for weenies and anybody who drinks Scotch over 20 years old should just go ahead and drink cognac.

That's all.

Wednesday, June 10

Okay, this is worth mentioning.

This "Charlesmaverick" who wrote a note in the previous comments section may turn out to be kind of a big deal; he says two of the biggest publishers in mainland China are interested in presenting Star Wars-related books in one or more of the various Chinese languages (I actually forgot to ask if Cm translated the book into Mandarin or Cantonese or whatever -- largely because I don't really know a damn thing about Chinese dialects outside the bare fact that there are several major and a number of minor). I managed to locate the right person at LFL to steer them toward, and now I'm waiting with considerable interest to see what happens next.

It may still fizzle; I'm not privy to any inside information, and cross-cultural intellectual property negotiations can be exceedingly tricky. But the possibility alone is cause for pleasurable contemplation. Umpty-million Chinese sales of Revenge of the Sith wouldn't make me a wealthy man -- but it'd be pretty cool to be part of what could be a major cultural exchange. David Brin would likely disagree, but I think that Star Wars, the Expanded Universe, and SW Fandom in general reflect well upon Western pop culture. It'd also be really damn cool if some Chinese SFF types were to get new contracts to produce their own SW books and such.

I'd read 'em.