Inspired by Tinned Pork Shoulder and Ham, and Spices. Secret Spices.

If you are Googling around looking for a picture of a Spam recipe you might come across this interesting photo journal Kimberly Blessing | Photos � Strange stuff at the SPAM Museum It's almost as good as actually going there.

Why was I Googling around looking for a picture of a Spam recipe? (SPAM is the proper way to write it, I'm lazy. Oh, and it's made of "Pork shoulder and ham, mostly. And spices. Secret spices.") Uh, suffice it to say I wanted to ambush someone with a funny link when they least expected it. I had such fun doing that with the Weight Watcher cards - but I don't want to get too predictable.

Sometimes I'll stumble across a site and hit the 'Blog This!' button then leave the bit stuck in drafts for days. Then I forget how I got there. Like this one, the Dull Men's Club. How did I get there? I think it was the same Spam Googling. Yeah, must be that dull men post about their Spam recipes on that site.

I was working on my bookshelf list in the sidebar (way way down near the bottom of the page) and was traveling around looking for different sites to link to the authors of the books I'm listing. I wanted a really good site for Spin by Robert Charles Wilson because I enjoyed it so much and I wanted to give it good linkage. It's up for a Hugo as well this summer. At the 64th World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim (they're calling it LAConIV but it's right around the corner from Disneyland, in Anaheim, in Orange County. Where I'll be. Whoo HOO!

Anyway, I found this collaboration between SciFi.com and Tor that I thought was cool on that trip around the web. Check out Sci-Fi Fantasy - Pick of the Month when you're looking for good reading.

Speaking of SciFi.com and good reading, do you like really, really short stories? Michael Swanwick has crafted a short short for each element of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Fun and educational. I'd link to my favorite, but I like them all!

Now here's another link I'm not sure how I got to. The Yorkshire Ranter.(edit to add, yep, it was "Particles" on Making Light. I find all the best stuff there. Then I swipe it for here - you could save yourself time by just reading there!) It was this sentence that grabbed me, "a recognisable geek culture evolved as soon as the pooter was installed" and then the final sentence, "what would a British-dominated geek culture have looked like?" Somebody write that book, ok? (no, I won't - don't have the time to do the research and manage a project full of my own geeks - if someone hasn't written it by the time I retire, then maybe I'll try to write it.)

I *love* alternate history. One of my favorite novels about an alternate timeline hugely divergent from our own is The Difference Engine. I could go on for paragraphs about the book. It's a fascinating look at "what if". And a plausable what if as well. (If you have the slightest interest, check the Wikipedia article and then take a look at one made from Lego Technic!)I wonder if the Ranter has read it. So I left him a message in comments about it. :-)

I went to bed last night at 2 am. I got up at 6 and I've been cleaning and washing and doing stuff on the 'puter all day. I'm starting to finally feel a bit tired, but I'm going to push 'til I drop. I hope that gets me a good night's sleep. It's not the bed - dang is it comfy. My brain just won't quit running. And I find that very funny. I can't get my brain to shut down at night and during the day I can't get it out of first gear. *sigh*

Dawno, Googling, Spam recipes, 1970s Weight Watcher's Recipe Cards, Mackereality, Michael Swanwick, SciFi.com, alternate history, The Difference Engine, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Lego Technic, Blogs, Blogging, Blog This!