Nodeslam

RevPhil, 2005. Photo and robot by ideath (CC by-nc-sa 2.0)

Only 6 nodes were posted to E2 on Mon 20-Feb-2012, but they included nodes by doyle and iceowl? I’ll take it.

doyle’s node is about [maple syrup], but is moreover about appreciating things with value above and beyond the monetary:

“If you take an accountant’s view, with labor a minimum of $5.15/hour, well, you end up losing “value” or money or whatever it is we think is more tangible than currency. It’s thinking like that that got us the 98% corn syrup version of syrup. If Indians were better accountants, we would not know what real maple syrup tasted like. …“

(Be sure to also read the footnote, which contains a bit of advice that I didn’t know re: finding the good stuff.)

I believe this is a repost, resurrected from Node Heaven, as it has over 100 upvotes– an astronomical total by today’s standards– and C!s from noders such as ToasterLeavings who haven’t been seen around much lately. (Note to coders: It would be something handy if re-published w/us retained their original publication date, so that a bit of auto-text in the footer could say, e.g., “This writeup was originally published on November 13, 1999″.)

iceowl instead emptied his moleskine into a daylog ([February 20, 2012]), collecting some fragmentary thoughts about corporate life, E2, spam, and free energy.

“Life is a club for the living.”

As for the rest: Croakery informs us about the frankly horrible-sounding childhood illness [Hand, foot and mouth disease], Transitional Man posts a saddening daylog about a friend with cancer, and decoy hunches defines [ramollissement] and then hurls some free-verse into the soup.

The deluge at Hot Damn 5, Columbus OH, July 2007. Photo by RoguePoet (CC by-nc-sa 2.0)

13 nodes were added to the ‘gel on Sun 19-Feb-2012
Highest-rated w/u: [It's quiet... too quiet (idea)] by Tem42 at +24 Rep

A good day for fiction! The Custodian posted a new chapter of Override: [Stand and unfold yourself]. [Override] is a sci-fi serial about a human agent of a machine-intelligence empire, and his partner– a sentient AI pistol called “the Tzun”. It has kind of a Jason Bourne meets Traveller vibe, and is my fave ongoing thing on the site right now.

“‘We have no record,’ he said, ‘of you passing through immigration control on High Port or at either shuttle facility onworld. How did you gain entry?’

I smiled apologetically at him. The woman was still watching me carefully. I decided she was the actual investigator; the man may have thought he was, but he was fairly obviously a Security agent who didn’t know everything about the situation. He apparently had no idea that I might have arrived in-system on the Interrupt; if he’d known that, he wouldn’t be going on with silly questions about immigration control. I’d made sure my drop pod had disassembled itself before entering Landfall the first time, so I was fairly confident he had no idea where I’d come from. The woman, however…” …

If you haven’t been following it, the jumping on point for the current arc is [Losing friends and winning enemies].

There was also an original story by Zephronias about ordinary people desperately trying not to become stock characters while caught up in a storm of unoriginality: a [Cliche Storm]. It’s metalicious! And hella charming.

“The TV was on now, and on the screen a reporter was going on about the storm.

‘. . . And the NRD would like to assure everyone that they are doing their best to prevent any narrative casualties, and would like to remind everyone that the narrative dampeners have been placed in strategic locations around the city, including hospitals, orphanages, police stations, cemeteries and other possible contamination areas.’

Bernard grinned. ‘Can’t have any chosen ones or antichrists being born willy nilly, eh?’ …”

Afterward, Tem42 posted a short node on the stock movie phrase “[It's quiet... too quiet]” that included, as a literary reference, a quote from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze, justifiably earning it a teetering pile of upvotes and high-fives all around.

Rounding out the rest: lizardinlaw and Glowing Fish both posted personal essays under [Entertain Evil Thoughts], there were more nodes about US politics from Glowing Fish and Pandeism Fish, a zombie story from BranRainey (that I think suffers from an overly cliche setup, coming as it does right after Zeph’s story), a short personal node from moeyz, poems from Intentions and winston_farsoul, and a review of [Gears of War 3] by dochollidae that I skipped due to some irritating stylistic choices by the writer.

I think that’s everything.

E2 graffiti in North Melbourne, Australia. Photo by Craig Anderson, 2005 (CC by-sa 2.0)

The Daylog: 18-Feb-2012

11 nodes were added to the ‘gel on Sat 18-Feb-2012
Highest-rated w/u: [February 18, 2012 (log)] by NanceMuse at +30 Rep

Among them:

BranRainey rediscovers that old alchemy that has made many a good E2 w/u: GTKY node + misleadingly saucy title = [I learnt how to perform cunnilingus while on holiday with my boyfriend].

A node by dannye is always welcome. This one is a rumination on tight-wound American religious communities and the Amish tradition of [rumspringa], with a pointedly-worded aside about this year’s US presidential campaign.

“I would like for you to consider your current opinions about Mormonism. You hate them, don’t you? Even though you didn’t really have much of an opinion about them this time last year. And even though almost every time you hear someone speak evil of them, it ends with, ‘Now, don’t get me wrong: The Mormons I’ve known IRL are some of the nicest folks I’ve ever met.’ …“

Tem42 posted a fun, excellent w/u on [nonce word]s that ties together ideas from some other recent nodes about language.

“The most common method of creating nonce words, and the easiest on the reader, is to use familiar word parts in new ways; from the obsolete ‘hexagonally’ to the modern ‘truthiness’, wordsmiths have always created new words by combining old words with old pieces in new ways. Edgar Allen Poe gave us the ever-popular ‘tintinnabulation’, H.P. Lovecraft gave us the rather less useful ‘hippocephalic’, and Snoop Doggy Dogg gave us ‘bootylicious’. …“

And deus-ex-machina added a sudden, erotic non-sequitur to the [Bacon] node– currently sitting at -3 Rep but c’mon, noders. I love the idea that any node can take an unexpected detour into all-out sexytimes.

Rounding out the rest: 2 daylogs– including NanceMuse’s well-written & well-received 61st anniversary tribute to her parents ([February 18, 2012]), surreal flash-fiction from Longwalker, a poem by Eniteris somewhat in the form of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s “I Am Waiting” (sorry, E, I still like the original better), factuals by nilsbarth and Laiam, and Orangeduck’s unconventional review of [Dear Ester] that, despite its meanderings, does get to an interesting point re: games vs art vs life.

Two Sheds w/ wertperch & grundoon (background) by RoguePoet, Oregon coast, 4 July 2009 (CC by-nc-sa 2.0)

8 nodes were added to the ‘gel on Fri 17-Feb-2012
Highest-rated w/u: [Growler (thing)] by doyle at +53 Rep

Among them:

This beautiful and heartening daylog by wertperch which I and, currently, 20 other noders are all encouraging you to read.

Related to it, the mysterious rosetinted posted another excellent poem, this one in tribute to Kevin & Christine: [Until the earth and sky met and locked the distance between them forever]

doyle submitted another fine w/u, explaining everything you might need to know about that useful artifact of American beer culture, the [Growler]:

In the good old days, before the 18th Amendment, you could either drink your beer at the saloon, or send your kids with a bucket (growler), which could be filled for a nickel. The pail held, more or less, a half gallon. Between the difficulties of bottling, and the tax regulations at the time, grabbing a pailful of ale was significantly cheaper that grabbing a bottle. …

Rounding out the rest: Glowing Fish came to the defense of [Comic Sans], teleny took an interesting slant on a (person)-node at [Laura Nyro], some short fiction from new noder Laiam, some… er, I don’t know what from moeyz (feel like I’m missing some vital context here. Guess I should watch more PBS.) and a poem by worn-out_shoe.

Darjeeling, India. Photo by Oolong, 2005 (CC by-nc-sa 2.0)

The Daylog: 16-Feb-2012

11 new nodes were posted to Everything2 on 16 Feb 2012.
Highest-rated node: [Tomato soup (recipe)] by alex at +26 Rep

Also among them:

AAPT followed up his recent w/u on [Indian Traffic] with some more reminiscences about [India]. I’m a sucker for travelogue and quite enjoyed reading them. In a similar vein, rajani noded a short story entitled [Suds Buds] about a young woman in Boston sentenced to community service in a soup kitchen, estranged from her grandmother in India and struggling to put together the misfit pieces of her life:

I didn’t know how to pray or what to pray for, and needed a ritual to soothe me. I chanced upon the idea of washing each piece of my story in the soapy water while praying for some clarity, some understanding. And so with everything I had in me; confusion, self-pity, shame, doubt, fear, and the tiny shred of faith I was holding onto, I started to wash each thought that came up in my mind along with a plate. And so it was, that as I pondered my rather challenging relationship with my sole living grandparent, Mara had tried to grab the soapy plate a moment before I was ready to surrender the thought. …

(This was rajani’s first node since 2009, kiddos! Give it a read. A nifty story, hoping for more.)

Other news: Hell no! borgo’s favorite watering hole caught fire! No worries, it’s still standing. He turned the anecdote into a factual w/u at [grease fire].

And a recipe fiiight! NanceMuse vs alex. The battleground: [tomato soup]. I think alex comes up the champion this time by unveiling his secret unstoppable technique, orzo, which sounds god-damned delicious.

Do not think that you put too little pasta in it. Orzo is an ideal noodle: left unchecked, it will expand to absorb all available fluid and fill all available space. This property of orzo makes it great for leftovers. Overnight it will have expanded again and you can make another complete meal by adding a bit of water. In fact, if you put in too much orzo you could find yourself doing this for two or three days as though you’d acquired some tasty but malevolent noodle cornucopia. …

Another poem from rosetinted, still my (other) favorite 0-leveler this week. This one– [fish upon the sand]– is short, smutty, and comical, three qualities I much enjoy in a poet.

Rounding out the rest: a poem by Intentions, a quite clever little story by raincomplex ([crane]), a daylog and a factual/opinion piece by Pandeism Fish, and an E1-style two liner from AAPT about [Murray Head].

(That last one is right now sitting at the interesting Rep of +8/-8, you guys. I am heartened to see that the people who upvote E1-style nodes are now reaching an equilibrium point with the people who hate hate hate them.)

Photo by Oolong, taken in Kolkata, India in 2005. (CC by-nc-sa 2.0)

WxT says 7 new nodes were posted to Everything2 on 15-Feb-2012. Among them:

[Indian Traffic] by rookie noder AAPT, which I chinged. I don’t know why this is, but Brits always seem at their most British to me when they’re talking about driving. I admit I was secretly hoping to see the word “tire” spelled with a ‘y’ (no luck) but this is still all pretty good:

“These roadworks loom up out of the night with virtually no warning: there are high-vis chevrons, but sometimes these turn out to be improvised from fluorescent gaffer tape, and once presented us with arrows pointing both left and right: only the option to the left was wide enough for a car. Perhaps Indian scooter riders knew that they could go round the other side. Apart from these fluorescent markers, that is really it: very few “Construction Work” signs, and certainly none of the arc lamps which make any major roadworks a blaze of light at night in the UK. The roadworks would close 1, 2 or even all 3 lanes of the highway: traffic just made its way around, bouncing over kerbs down onto the old narrow roads alongside and back up onto the highway. Even during these manoeuvres the drivers kept on overtaking each other, honking cheerfully as they went. Alongside the highway is India. It is late at night so there are few people around for now. …“

Glowing Fish piles in with the kind of cheeky and meandering writeup on Focal length that I’ve come to expect from E2 (that was a compliment, by the way).

Level 3 noder Croakery submitted a modern update to the node on [gastric bypass] that was sufficiently scientific to gross me the fuck out. (That’s a compliment, too. You’ll know when a medical node is detailed and informative enough when it starts to make me hella queasy.)

Speaking of doctors and strange compliments– SEE WHUT I DID THERE? YEAAAAAH!!– lizardinlaw posted a daylog on that ([February 15, 2012]). It became the highest-rated w/u of the day at +23 Rep.

Rounding out the rest: a poem from Intentions and another personal node from Glowish Fish.

Aaaaand from the [Page of Cool]: Hizzoner borgo bestowed the touch of his mighty Ed-Cool upon [How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?] for its three w/us by Orange Julius and mps (in 2000) and haze (in 2002).

“Additional Exercises:
* Procure a copy of Maurice Durufle’s “Ubi Caritas et Amor” and repeat the experiment. Discuss the effect that music religious in nature has on your results.
* Does the type of dancing affect the number of angels who can dance? Experiment with such dancing styles as the foxtrot, the Electric Slide, and the clueless male arm flail.
* Discuss possible sources of error, such as pin imbalance, drunken angels who keep falling off of the pin’s head, or angels who won’t dance if they don’t know the song. …”

It takes a turn for the (somewhat) serious– and, more surprisingly, insightful– from there.

Their reward is knowing that they are cooler than liquid nitrogen. (Does Cool Man Eddie still say that? It’s been awhile since I’ve been ed-cooled.)

Photo by QXZ, of sidewalk scrawl at Hot Damn 2. (CC by-nc-sa 2.0)

W/us By Type says 19 new nodes were posted to Everything2 on Feb-14-2012. Enough that I didn’t have time to read them all (an uncommon occurrence, currently). Among them:

Dr. doyle noded another of his signature w/us on simple biology, this time on the subject of [Malt]:

Malted barley has undergone rigorous biochemical analysis because beer matters. Throw unmalted barley into a pot of boiling water, and you have hot mush. Throw malted barley in hot water, holding it at certain temperatures for a bit of time, and now you are mashing, on your way to making a fine wort, the mother of beer.

If you want to understand mashing, bear with me–a teeny bit of biochemistry follows …

One of the Great Old Ones of primordial Everything, rp, chimed in with two new definition nodes. One of them– [ideolexicalization], a made-up word to describe the act of making up your own words– proved charming and gained 2C!s

decoy hunches submitted a writeup on the album [Combustication] by jazz trio Medesky, Martin, and Wood that tweaked my interest enough to make me want to seek it out myself. If you’re a Spotify user, you can listen to the album here:
http://open.spotify.com/user/mwkelley/playlist/25Y6D9kBWRsFTL2cvvOQOU
(You’re right, dude. This is quite good.)

Jet-Poop contributed a small, tidy bio on [Bram Stoker], Zephronias added a Valentine’s Day prequel to [The life and times of a fallen angel], [teleny] had two nodes about colonial U.S. glasswork, and three noders added poems. My favorite of the three was the one by brand-new noder rosetinted: [It would have been an excellent story but I had to get off the train]

listen to the planes circle home
(spiral skies in an endless flight)

listen to the rains falling shorewards
(sound of waves in the harbor night) …

The joy of these was somewhat lessened by the pain of four frankly harrowing daylogs about depression (from The Custodian and first-time noder massey), chronic pain (by corvus) and, less seriously, computer woes (by BranRainey). Please send some love to these folks, noders. You know how I worry.

Rounding out the rest: a w/u by Pandeism Fish on something called Omnietheism that I honestly could not make heads or tails of, and a short story about love on the subway by jmpz. What’d I forget?

ENN* tells me that 5 nodes were posted to Everything2 on 13-Feb-2012. Among them:

* actually, I’ve started using Writeups by Type. What it lacks in a catchy abbreviation– WbT? W/UxT?– it makes up for by actually showing you every goddamn node.

Hah, whoops. BranRainey actually posted that review of [6 Days a Sacrifice] on the 13th. I skimmed it out of automatic spoiler-avoidance, but I appreciated his even-handedness, and– like I mentioned yesterday– it makes me hungry to go back and check out the series.

It is probably the least well received of the Chzo series, frequently criticized for what some claim to be a confusing story, poor gameplay and plot integration, and forced plot devices — but still, the game was fairly well-received by the Adventure Game Studio community and won two awards. While it might not live up to the hype for some people, few would argue that it’s terrible, and I in fact think it’s quite good. …

The Custodian posted a new chapter of The Network Revenant: [They Prayed to their Code To Give them Light]. I’ve missed a few installments and am unclear on the bigger picture, but it’s clear that the Flashrunners are posing as a team because shit is about to get very real:

There was a murmur, quickly stifled by the ‘Drome’s internal hush routines, but movement stilled also. Mikare gave the room a tight grin. “I suppose you’re all wondering why I’ve asked you here today.” Somebody threw a beer mug in eloquent commentary; Mikare bowed as the ‘Drome derezzed the mug. Throwing a mug in the ‘Drome was considered heartfelt, since the thrower implied that he or she was risking pageout. “We have a serious problem.” …

Rounding out the rest: a Valentine’s Day story concerning fear-eating demons by Pandeism Fish, a couple definition w/us by Zephronias and decoy hunches.

And, because today was light on new nodes, consider this gem from ancient of days: [Moons is good for eatin] by junkpile.

Do you want to know what is going to happen to you Shaymus? Yes he does, he expresses acute interest in what is going to happen. All right then I will tell. Listen up.

One of these days this girl is going to come get you. Not an ordinary girl but a princess, and you know what that means, that means she is not icky, she is RAD, she is one hundred percent cootie-free. Promise. Shaymus is reassured, he snuggles down. …

This is an experiment. Same domain name, different idea. If by some miracle you’re still subscribed to this RSS feed: bless ya.

Found myself wishing again that E2 had a “best shit from yesterday” feature. Decided to write it myself.

ENN says 12 w/us were posted to Everything2 on 12-Feb-2012. Among them…

The Custodian posted a writeup on the [Lost Horizon Night Market], which starts out sounding like a New York Magician story but turns out to be a real thing…

“One truck was the Fairy Godmother’s Tea. Entering in groups of 8 or so, you would cluster around a counter at the front end of the truck where a nice young woman (your fairy Godmother) interrogated a volunteer as to what they were looking for in life, and proceeded to cast a fairy godmother spell via the making of a complex and relevant sandwich.”

It was the last day of [ScienceQuest 2012], and Argentinian noder latamyk sumbitted a brief node on [A Liter of Light], an appropriate technology foundation spreading the idea of “solar bulbs”: a kind of clever mini-skylight that refracts light through a column of water to create free daylight illumination.

“The concept behind the project is so straightforward you won’t believe it: transparent plastic (water or soda) bottles filled with purified or distilled water and bleach. That’s it. Oh, well, and some holes in the roof.”

It pulled in 4C!s and a spot on Cream of the Cool.

Tem42 posted a factual w/u on [Nomen oblitum], which gives a small look into the careful & hyper-specialized process by which hundred-year-old taxonomy discrepancies are resolved.

“Another famous example is the genus Megalosaurus, which was originally described by Richard Brookes in 1763. He called it Scrotum humanum, because the available fragment of femur had rounded bulbs on the end that he thought looked like a human scrotum.”

Rounding out the rest: Zephronias posted another Faust & Fallen Angel story, if you’re following them. (I’ve kind of lost interest.) BranRainey posted a review of [6 Days a Sacrifice] that reminded me that Yahtzee Croshaw of Zero Punctuation is also an interactive-fiction writer. (Have made a solid note to check that out sometime. Thanks, dude!) Also, a poem from etouffee, more factuals by JD, Tem42, and Glowing Fish, and some postcard fiction from 0-Level noder LeftUnspoken.

Delay story, short version: This episode wasn't coming together exactly like I'd wanted it to. I got discouraged. I set it aside for awhile. That "awhile" became a month.

I think I’ll release the next Nodeslam in several chunks to help cut down on the perfection paralysis. But enough of that.

I’m happy enough with this one now. The parts that don’t have my fingerprints all over ‘em are really quite good. Music-wise, [Scout Finch] came through for me in a big big way and I can’t thank her enough.

Download it here or listen below.

Nodes we got in this here:
Butterfly soup by grundoon
read by the noder
recorded by steev

When in doubt, choose wings not shoes by Chras4
read by RoguePoet

(prayer for the departed) by dem bones
read by Dimview

Music:
I’ve come to eat your brains
nodeslam1
2am on tuesday
and Enough to drink by The Union Pacific (a.k.a. E2’s [Scout Finch])
also, parts of La sixieme porte de Shanaaghar by Greg Baumont &
Last Year Hurts by Go Slowpoke

(the photo is also by (and of) Scout Finch :: theunionpacific.tumblr.com)

Thanks for stickin’ around. ~RP