Archives
Posted by Justine at 9:40, November 14th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Love is Hell, New York City/USA, Reading, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, What's your fairy?, Writing & Publishing |
Posted by Justine at 11:54, October 27th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Sport, What's your fairy?, Writing & Publishing |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 5th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Sport, Writing & Publishing |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 1st, 2008 under Basketball, Food, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Next novel, Sport, Writing & Publishing |
The New York Liberty
won the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals. It was an ugly win. An ugly game. The only grace notes were Deanna Nolan's gorgeous shooting---I swear she stays up in the air for seconds at a time, she looks great even when she misses---the great turnout, and the fact that we won.
I didn't think it was possible for me to hate Bill Laimbeer more than I do. But his performance tonight pushed my hate a few notches upward. How he managed not to get a delay of game call or a technical I will never understand. Sit down, Bill!
Later today I will be in Larchmont, which is a mere twenty minutes from Grand Central:
Saturday, ...
Posted by Justine at 0:27, September 27th, 2008 under Basketball, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Sport, Writing & Publishing |
The sun is shining, the sky is clear, you can see the entire length of the avenue, the Chrysler Building gleams and last night the
New York Liberty made it into the conference finals. Let's go, Liberty! (And San Antonio got through to their conference finals. Oh, how I long for those two to meet in the WNBA finals. That would make my year!)
My editor loves my new book, work is going great on the even newer book---how much fun is it researching NYC in the thirties? VERY FUN---and HTDYF keeps getting
lovely reviews. In my world everything is fabulous. ((*Cough* It helps to not read newspapers or news blogs.))
How about youse lot? I had to shut down ...
Posted by Justine at 12:40, September 23rd, 2008 under Basketball, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar Book, New York City/USA, Praising, Sport, Writing & Publishing, young adult literature |
I stopped studying maths in Year 7. Before that I'd made a bit of an effort but in my first year of high school (in New South Wales high school starts in Year 7) I downed tools. I was bored, annoyed, and couldn't see the point so I quit. Technically I kept going to maths class---it was compulsory until the end of Year 10---but I failed each year and was never made to repeat. I didn't learn anything new after Year 6.
At the time I thought it was excellent that I could get away with it. In class I read novels under the desk. I never studied and finished my maths exams quicker than anyone else cause I guessed all ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, September 9th, 2008 under Basketball, Bloggery, Excuses, Magic Lessons, Magic or Madness, Magic! Magic! Magic! Oi! Oi! Oi!/Magic's Child, New York City/USA, Praising, Science, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Writing & Publishing |
Ally asks:
Justine, I was wondering what you would do in a situation like this:
"As some of you may have heard, my partial draft of Midnight Sun was illegally posted on the Internet and has since been virally distributed without my knowledge or permission or the knowledge or permission of my publisher."---Stephenie Meyer
Since I don’t really write or anything I don’t know what I would do. Would it bum you out to where you couldn’t write it anymore or would you just ignore it and keep going?
I'd be very unhappy and hurt that someone had betrayed my trust like that. I recently sent my most recnet novel, Why Do I Lie?, to a bunch of people for comments---if they'd ...
Posted by Justine at 0:47, August 30th, 2008 under Sport, Writing & Publishing, young adult literature |
The official method of figuring out who "won" the Lymps is to count who won the most gold, in which case China comes first with 51, and the USA comes second with 36. The USA, however, reckons the combined total is a better method on account of they won 110 medals altogether, while China only won 100.
If you use the first method Australia came sixth; if you use the second we came fifth.
Personally I think the most revealing way to look at the total is in terms of population and GDP. Both of which you can find at
this handy site. ((Their figures are taken from wikipedia so I suspect there are some inaccuracies.))
Population
1. Jamaica
2. Bahrain
3. Dominica Republic
4. ...
Posted by Justine at 3:19, August 25th, 2008 under Sport |
You know what I like best about the Olympics? Other than twenty-four hours of non-stop sport? That I can't decide which events I like best.
Seriously, there's all the primal track stuff: run, throw, jump, jump with giant pole. I loves 'em all. Plus Usian Bolt is a legend. I could watch the replay of his hundred metre relaxed stroll all day long. And how about Jamaica? Jamaicans are finally winning lots of medals for Jamaica, rather than GB or Canada or the USA. Lovely to see.
But how primal is weightlifting? Very. I love the grunt, scream, growl, popping veins. Weightlifting is the best sport ever. There should be a weightlifting channel.
On the other hand, I do love my team sports. ...
Posted by Justine at 20:31, August 20th, 2008 under Sport |
And the liar novel is almost finished. I'd say all's right with the world, wouldn't you?
He notes that in the Armenian Gospel of the Infancy, translated into Armenian in the 6th century from a much older lost Syriac original, a passage tells of Jesus playing what may well be the precursor of cricket, with a club and ball. (Via
Lili.)
Sounds like a hundred per cent conclusive evidence of
Jesus playing cricket to me.
Posted by Justine at 19:25, August 10th, 2008 under Cricket, Liar Book, Sport, Travelling, Writing & Publishing |
A while back I said that one of my writing goals was to publish a book in every one of the following genres. Here's the updated list with more genres crossed off cause I done 'em in How To Ditch Your Fairy: ((Yes, I know HTDYF isn't pub'd yet, but, c'mon, it's only a month away!))
Romance
Historical
Crime (what some call mysteries)
Thriller (the John Grisham, Tom Clancy etc etc genre ((I'm using "genre" and "category" interchangably cause now that I'm no longer an academic---I can.))
Fantasy
SF
Comedy (do you call 'em comedies if they're books?)
Horror
Mainstream (you know, Literature: professor has affair with much younger student in the midst of mid-life crisis)
Western
YA
For those keeping track I crossed off "romance", "comedy" and "SF". Three down ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, August 5th, 2008 under Liar Book, Sport, Writing & Publishing |
Scott and me has run away to finish our novels at an undisclosed location. Posting from behind the walls of our hidden bunker may be intermittent and on the shortish side. Book must be finished on the soonish.
In the meantime, it is
conclusive, "monster" and "white-ant" are verbs only in Australia. For confused non-Australians a white ant is a termite. Thus to white-ant someone is to undermine them: to bore away at their foundations, you know, like termites do. Is most useful verb.
Thanks for the Cadel Evans commiserations. Second two years running. Surely next year.
Yes, I is stoked that the Liberty are in the second place in the Eastern conference. Here's hoping we come out after the Olympics break ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, July 29th, 2008 under Basketball, Bloggery, Liar Book, Sport, Tour de France, Travelling, Writing & Publishing |
Candace Parker played. She played very well indeed. I was impressed. ((She's not dirty in defence unlike, say, Lisa Leslie or Delisha Milton-Jones.))
And
WE WON!!
And we are now a mere game out of first place in the East.
Life is very good indeed.
Thank you,
New York Liberty, for improving in so many different ways. We have post players. We have two good point guards. We have DE-FENCE. In fact, other than Indiana, I think we're the best defensive team in the WNBA. I love our full-court pressure. I love the many ways we made LA turn over the ball. Twas bliss.
Now all we have to do is shoot a bit better and we'll be perfect.
Too exhausted ...
Posted by Justine at 0:47, July 26th, 2008 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Sport |
The WNBA has
handed down the suspensions for Tuesday's brawl. I know many are unhappy about the lenience towards Candace Parker in particular. But for extremely selfish reasons I am very very very glad. Because this means I get to see her play on Friday. Woo hoo!
What's making me cranky is the total absence of anything said about the abysmal refs. Where's their punishment?
Update: Though I'll admit I am very nervous about Leslie and Parker being so rested before we play then in the Garden.
Posted by Justine at 16:41, July 24th, 2008 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Sport, State of the World |
I just watched a hard fought game between the LA Sparks and Detroit Shock that ended in
a real fight. The ending was horrible with three players and one coach ejected and, I'm sure, lots of unwelcome attention from the press which ordinarily completely ignores the WNBA. Gosh, maybe now even the New York Times will cover a game.
I was most shocked by Detroit Assistant Coach Mahorn, who is male and well over 7ft tall 6ft 10inches, pushing over Lisa Leslie. He needs to be suspended for the rest of the season. You do not touch the opposing team's players ever. Under any circumstances.
But mostly I blame the referees. There were several incidents leading up to the fight between ...
Posted by Justine at 22:26, July 22nd, 2008 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Ranting, Sport, State of the World |
I may have mentioned that
Leilani Mitchell of the
New York Liberty looks pretty much exactly how I imagined Charlie, the protag of How To Ditch Your Fairy, looking. And she's a point guard---just like Charlie! How perfect is that?
So here is a Leilani photo taken by Bruce Yeung to adorn the most recent reviews of HTDYF. ((I love this photo. How gorgeous is it that her coach, Patty Coyle, is taller than she is? Also that Leilani's so ready to get back into the game that Coyle has to hold her jersey to finish giving her the rest of the play.))
The first review is over at ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, July 19th, 2008 under Basketball, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Sport, Writing & Publishing |
Atlanta Dream: 91; Chicago Sky: 84
The first win for the Atlanta Dream has made me very happy I can't imagine how thrilled the Dream fans are. They have had the longest losing streak (0-17) in WNBA history without actually being a bad team. Quite a few of those losses were thrillers. I know. I watched the game where the New York Liberty barely beat them.
I think it's astonishing and wonderful that more than 8,000 people have shown up for every one of those games even when they'd lost ten, fifteen, seventeen in a row. And now they have their first win. Woo hoo!! And w00t! It's good for Atlanta and it's good for the whole league. May it be ...
Posted by Justine at 21:52, July 5th, 2008 under Basketball, Praising, Sport |
NB: The Alchemy of Stone is not a YA book.
I have just read a splendid book, Ekaterina Sedia's The Alchemy of Stone, and now I must blurb it. I am realising once again that blurbing a book is really hard. As you may have noticed from this blog, I am not naturally succinct. I fail at all forms of writing that are on the short side: blurbs, pitches, haikus, summaries. They are all nightmarish to me.
I am so crappy at pitching my own books that Scott uses my feeble attempt to pitch Magic or Madness to a Sydney bookseller as his standard example of how not to pitch. (After hearing me out the bookseller put on a forced smiled ...
Posted by Justine at 14:18, July 2nd, 2008 under Reading, Sport, Travelling, Writing & Publishing |
And now that she has a face I'm even happier with the cover than I was before and, let me tell you, I was pretty happy. But now she's not only escaped the
headless woman curse, it's also clear that she bears a bit of a resemblance to
Leilani Mitchell of the
New York Liberty, who looks exactly how I imagine Charlie would look if she wasn't, you know, imaginary:
Copyright 2008 NBAE. Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images
Posted by Justine at 0:00, June 25th, 2008 under Basketball, Sport, Writing & Publishing |
New York Liberty: 105
Phoenix Mercury: 72
BEST GAME EVER
Without
Penny Taylor the Mercury are nothing. We held them to their season low. We shut
Diana Taurasi and
Cappie Pondexter down.
I love my team.
That is all.
Well, except that WE REALLY REALLY REALLY rule.
Did I mention I love the New York Liberty?
Posted by Justine at 23:14, June 22nd, 2008 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Sport |
Apropos of
Becky Hammon playing for Russia comes
this article from The New York Times about all the foreign nationals that are playing for the US Olympic squad:
Marching into Beijing Stadium under the American flag this August will be a kayaker from Poland, table tennis players from China, a triathlete from New Zealand, a world-champion distance runner from Kenya and a gold-medal-winning equestrian from Australia.
Though I am shocked, SHOCKED to my core, that an Australia would desert our fine country to play for another nation especially when they're a good shot a gold medal. How are we going to keep coming third in the Olympics despite our small population if the big countries steal all our Olympians? Huh? ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, June 15th, 2008 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Sport, State of the World |
Cricket Buzz just named its
top 51 cricket blogs and I'm on the list!
Yay!
And also---how embarrassing! I have been very remiss of late when it comes to cricket blogging. I mean I haven't mentioned the blessed sport since March and not written anything proper since January. Largely because (for reasons beyond my control) I have not been home since May of last year. ((Waaaaahhhh!!!!!)) Thus I have not been immersed in cricket culture and have not been keeping up with things such as the new
Twenty20 Indian Premier League. ((The link is to a NYT article explaining the League which will amuse those of us who know about cricket and hopefully be a clear-ish explanation for ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, May 12th, 2008 under Bloggery, Cricket, Liar Book, New York City/USA, Sport, Sydney/Australia |
I'm curious: Are any of you interested in reading about writers' word counts? And if so why? Cause I confess I'm not sure I entirely get the point of blogging about it. And those who post 'em on your blog why do you?
Don't get me wrong I keep an eagle eye on my word counts. They are the measure of my days. ((Better than coffee spoons.)) I'm aiming to hit 60 thou by the last week of July. But, you know, it's housekeeping. I don't keep people posted on how many dishes I've washed, meals I've cooked, or hours I've spent exercising. ((For the record: today I've washed no dishes, put together two meals, and spent an hour at the ...
Posted by Justine at 0:06, May 10th, 2008 under Bloggery, Sport, Writing & Publishing |
Rome was unbelievably wonderful especially the food. A friend of mine spent four months in Italy and gained around three kilos---I think I managed that in one week. Excellent!
I am at work on a post about the fabulous food we ate and a number of others---including another writing one ((See? I do listen to you. You ask that I blog it and blog it I will.))---but work on my next novel has got in the way of finishing them. Stupid novel! Not to mention the erraticness of our internet access. But, soon, my pretties, soon!
In the meantime I'm exhausted but happy: there's cricket on the tellie. All's right with the world. And even though England's doing kind of okay I ...
Posted by Justine at 19:11, March 24th, 2008 under Cricket, Excuses, Sport, Travelling |
I will confess that I was nervous about going to
High Voltage ConFusion. There were several reasons for this:
I'm afraid of cold places. And Detroit in winter is COLD. ((How cold? Minus a million cold! That's how cold. So cold that I'm back in NYC and it's freezing and it seems warm in comparison.))
I'd never been a guest of honour before and was worried I'd be crappy at it.
I was aware that most of the people at the con would not have heard of me or Scott and was worried that they would feel dudded of a proper author guest of honour what wrote adult sf and fantasy.
I need not have had any concerns at all. I was right ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 24th, 2008 under Basketball, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Sport, Travelling, Vainglory, Viewing |
In the vociferous arguing about the ins and outs of who behaved worst over the second test etc etc there are people implying that criticising the Australian cricket team is unAustralian and whingey. ((Though what's more Australian than whingeing?!))
Please! I love my country, I love cricket, but when the men's team behave like dickheads they should be called on it.
People who play sport at a professional level are not exempt from the social contract. No one is. Writers (to pick a random example out of the air) shouldn't behave like dickheads either. Recently I was at an award ceremony where the speeches of the winners were generous and moving. All but one. This one person got up to accept their ...
Posted by Justine at 0:01, January 9th, 2008 under Cricket, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Whingeing |
I've had a few people writing to ask why I'm not commenting on the disastrous second test between Australia and India. There are several reasons. I've not been able to follow any of the cricket as closely as I'd like. I haven't had time.
But mostly because I'm embarrassed. And, well, I think
Greg Baum and
Mike Coward have expressed what I feel about it so well that i don't really need to add anything.
I will though: I'm sick of Aussie sportsmen (and, frankly, it's the blokes, not the women) behaving like dickheads. I'm not Indian, so the bad behaviour of the Indians doesn't make me ashamed, and, you know what? We're the host country here. We should be ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 8th, 2008 under Cricket, Sport, Sydney/Australia |
. . . but I am hundred per cent in favour of the
WGA strike.
Doris Egan, who's a writer on House, ((and also wrote some of my fave fantasy novels of the early 1990s))
eloquently explains why. And, yes, a lot of it is about dosh. Why the hell shouldn't writers be adequately compensated for their work? Here's my favourite bit:
By the way, I'm not at all sure this understanding [about money] goes up to the CEO's office; how can it, when that CEO can be handed sixty million dollars just for quitting? Someday I must tell you the story of the famous exec who said, "Why not make this character middle-class? Let's say ...
Posted by Justine at 9:55, November 13th, 2007 under Basketball, Bloggery, New York City/USA, Praising, Ranting, Sport, State of the World, Writing & Publishing |
So, I'm hearing lots of very negative things about
Second Life. Does anyone like it? Anyone at all? Please speak up!
In other news the
Matildas are
doing way better in the Women's Soccer World Cup than anyone predicted. Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi! Or in their own words: NOICE!!!
Posted by Justine at 21:58, September 22nd, 2007 under Praising, Sport, Sydney/Australia |
Phoenix won the
WNBA finals. I am so very happy. I LOVE their style of play. I love Penny Taylor and Cappie Pondexter and Kelly Miller and Diana Taurasi. They are awesomeness personified. They SO deserved to win.
And Detroit totally dogged it. They have not looked that good these playoffs. They barely got past the New York Liberty. Same against Indiana. They did not deserve to win overall. Plus Bill Laimbeer drives me insane. That said Deanna Nolan is probably the most gorgeous shooter I have ever seen. I'd happily watch her play all day long. And Cheryl Ford is crazy strong and brave.
Next year the Liberty are going to knock Detroit out. Oh, yes, we will!
Posted by Justine at 7:58, September 17th, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Praising, Sport |
Libba Bray ((and since I'm mentioning Libba I should also mention that
Maureen Johnson is not the only one to have already read The Sweet Far Thing. That's right! Me too. It is deeply awesome. The best of the trilogy.)) is the best friend a girl could have. Look what she done gived me:
I screamed.
Do you notice the choking hazard warning? And that the evil uni***n is call "Destructicorn"?
Happy sigh.
Have any of you seen High School Musical? I think it may be the most conflict-free movie I've ever watched. Quite astonishing. I admit I was a tad disappointed by the choreography. The dance sequences were much better in She's the Man. Also how ...
Posted by Justine at 13:45, September 15th, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Sport, Unicorns, Viewing |
Three quarters of the WNBA playoffs have gone exactly how I want them to. Phoenix beat Seattle (two Aussies against one); Indiana beat Connecticut (one Aussie against Satan's own team); San Antonio beat Sacramento (one Aussie---assistant coach Sandy Brondello + 2 ex-Liberty stars against no Aussies and no ex-Libs).
Now we just have to beat Detroit and my basketball year will be complete. Seriously, I didn't think we'd make the post-season so for the Liberty to get past the first round would be a second miracle. I love what Shamika Christon, Janel McCarville and Loree Moore have been doing in the post-season. I'm so stoked for the 2008 season. The New York Liberty is going to be insanely good.
This year's WNBA ...
Posted by Justine at 23:19, August 27th, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Praising, Sport |
Because today I must share the negativity, a list of my current hates:
Referees who only seem to see the fouls committed by my team
Bill Laimbeer ((Though I do love hating him. Don't ever change, Bill! You were eerily calm and unaggro during today's game. A game where you don't get a technical foul is a just plain wrong.))
Friends who are always late---especially when we're meeting for dinner and I'm starving and the stupid restaurant won't seat us until the entire party is there
Restaurants that won't seat you until the entire party is there---What gives? The table is empty and just sitting there. We'll order stuff. Lots of it! You'll make more money off us if you seat us straight away. ...
Posted by Justine at 17:48, August 26th, 2007 under Basketball, Ranting, Sport |
Can you hear that screaming? That's me yelling myself hoarse with joy because we
beat Detroit in Madison Square Garden last night.
BEST. GAME. EVER.
Almost all the punters predicted Detroit would sweep us. Ha ha ha! Instead Detroit played awful. It was like they'd been cursed. And after an awkward messy first half we played great.
Of course mean old
Bill Laimbeer didn't say a word about how well the Liberty played he just went on about his own team's suckiness. Whose fault is that, Bill?
Now I think we're a more than even chance to take Detroit on their home court and I'm cranky that me and Scott're going to be at smelly
DragonCon cause it means we will ...
Posted by Justine at 9:59, August 25th, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Praising, Sport |
Washington won their game which meant they were one game ahead of us, but we won our game, which meant we're tied, but we've beaten them 3 times this year so we go through to the playoffs!
YAY!!!!!
Let's go, Liberty!!!
Posted by Justine at 18:55, August 19th, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Sport |
I've been a
New York Liberty season ticket holder since 2003 (though I saw my first game in 2000) and this year has definitely been the most discombobulating. We started off with that
5-0 winning streak then later in the season we had the horrific 0-7 streak and looked to be no chance for the playoffs. Yet here we are one game left and if we win we're in. In fact, even if we lose we could still make the post season---if the
Washington Mystics lose their game.
This year I have seen the Liberty lose an astonishing number of games they should have won. They'd have a lead at the end of the first ...
Posted by Justine at 10:39, August 18th, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Sport |
Someone just wrote to ask me what to do when the writing is not going well. Fortunately, Diana Peterfreund has
just written on this because I have no useful answer.
I suspect my own struggles with sentences that crumble as I type, with plot and character and meaning twisting out of my control, are at least partly because I'm very early on in my career. Old timers are much smarter about this stuff. Fer instance, my parents heard
Thomas Kenneally interviewed the other day and he said that the writing got easier as he got older. After having written for more than forty years and having produced a bazillion gazillion novels (or, you know, thirty odd) he knows his ...
Posted by Justine at 12:07, July 31st, 2007 under Bloggery, Cricket, Sport, Sydney/Australia, Whingeing, Writing & Publishing |
From this
sensible article on cheating in sports by JERÉ LONGMAN for the New York Times:
Fausto Coppi of Italy, who won the Tour de France in 1949 and 1952, was once asked if he ever fueled himself with amphetamines.
"Only when necessary," he said.
How often was that?
"Most of the time," Coppi replied.
The Tour de France ranges from 3,000 to 4,000 kilometres long (1,800 to 2,500 miles) which must be covered really fast in three weeks over hill and dale with just two rest days. Evidence is pretty strong that chemical assistance has been used since the tour began.
Longman points out that the two sports that have had the most drug scandals are the ones that have pursued the issue most ...
Posted by Justine at 12:22, July 30th, 2007 under Sport, State of the World, Tour de France |
My favourite basketballer in the entire universe is
Lauren Jackson, which every so often puts me in the weird position of barracking for the team she's playing against. See, I'm a
New York Liberty fan and she plays for the
Seattle Storm, which very confusingly has the same colours as Australia (green and gold).
Last Sunday her team narrowly beat my team, and on the one hand, I was deeply bummed---it was so close! We almost had them!---on the other hand, damn she's a
fine fine player. And, oh, how much I love watching her play. I just prefer, you know, when she's playing for the
Opals and they're
winning the world championships.
How ...
Posted by Justine at 0:09, July 24th, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Sport |
Marrije asked over on insideadog if I'll be following the Tour de France this year. Sadly, I will not.
This year has gotten out of control. I cannot afford to spend hours every day watching the Tour and following it online. I am incapable of following the Tour non-obsessively. So for the first time in years I'm not following it at all. (No spousal pressure was brought to bear in the making of this decision. Well, okay, just a little bit. I am not husband-beaten! I am not!)
Waaaahh!!!!!
The New York Liberty (10-8) will have to sustain my sport-following needs this northern summer.
And now I go back to the myriad tasks that confront me. At this point it's so bad I'm resorting ...
Posted by Justine at 12:02, July 9th, 2007 under Basketball, Sport, Tour de France, Whingeing, Writing & Publishing |
New York has a sports team that's opened its season with a five game winning streak, despite not even making the playoffs last year and no longer having its
best and most popular player. How many column inches has the New York Times given this remarkable performance?
Pretty much none. Unless you count the teeny tiny AP reports.
This is because the team is the
New York Liberty and it's a women's team. The New York Times is incapable of covering women's basketball unless it's a profile of a male coach. Especially if that
male coach is ex-NBA and coaches a non-New York team.
The New York Daily has no problem covering the Liberty nor does the ...
Posted by Justine at 11:06, June 6th, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Ranting, Sport |
Today at the New York Liberty versus Phoenix Mercury game (we won!) the
Rutger's women's team stood in the middle of the court during one of the breaks. We gave them a standing ovation, stamping, and clapping and yelling for them. At every timeout thereafer they were beseiged by well-wishers and autograph seekers. They may not have won last years' finals but they definitely won the battle against racist radio announcers. Yay!
Kay Yow one of the greatest coaches of women's basketball ever and
Vivian Stringer the fabulous coach of Rutgers were also there. So was Teresa Weatherspoon the best pointguard the Liberty has ever had. All were applauded and mobbed for autographs. It made me so happy. ...
Posted by Justine at 20:41, June 3rd, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Praising, Sport, Viewing |
I seem to have rolled out of the ranty side of the bed every morning this week. First I was peeing on the eighties and now I am cranky on account of a particularly stupid thing that was said to me about basketball.
Viz, "I can't stand basketball. It's just a bunch overpaid genetic freaks running around with a ball. Who cares?"
As I had just been talking about the joys of my season tickets to the New York Liberty, I clearly care, and you, Mr Shorty Bald man, were being very rude. I poke my tongue out at you!
But that's not what's raised my ire, nope, it's the phrase "genetic freaks".
So, what are you supposed to do if you're naturally good ...
Posted by Justine at 0:03, April 25th, 2007 under Basketball, Ranting, Sport |
Australia just thrashed England in their Super Eight match. They barely broke a sweat doing it. Ha ha!
I discovered
this lovely review of the Magic or Madness trilogy by a future librarian. It's pretty spoiler free if you want a squizz. I really liked this bit:
The magical abilities are also not what one expects---Reason has an amazing aptitude for math and patterns. Her friend Tom can create magical clothing, and Jay-Tee's magic is in movement---like running and dancing. (None of this, ooh-look-at-me-I can-fly-or-read-minds . . . etc.)
I did that on purpose! And someone noticed! Woo hoo!
Also Scott just read me the almost last bit of Extras and it is good! So. Very. Good.
And on Tuesday we fly to San ...
Posted by Justine at 18:24, April 8th, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, New York City/USA, Scott's books, Sport, Writing & Publishing, young adult literature |
El and
Rachel Brown correctly surmised that the fan half of
my question was inspired by
the bruhaha about whether John Scalzi should be nominated for a fan writing Hugo or not.
For the record: yes, Scalzi should, and I hope he wins for all the reasons that have been described in great detail
here,
here and
here. I'm also not comfortable with people telling other people that they are or aren't "fans" or "geeks" or anything else. Those are the kind of labels you get to choose for yourself.
The geek half was inspired by my being asked to contribute a story to an anthology about geeks and geekery. My instant response ...
Posted by Justine at 12:52, March 31st, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, Listening, Praising, Ranting, Reading, Research, Sport, Viewing, Words & Language |
I was going to rant all over my blog today about the bloody
ICC's idiotic decision to demand that
youtube take down all footage from the World Cup. But then I found
this excellent rant that says everything I want to say. Here's a taste of Andrew Miller's wrath:
Only three days ago it was suggested on this website that the events of the past week might serve as a wake-up call for cricket's fiscally obsessed powerbrokers. Fat chance. A game run increasingly by lawyers for lawyers, has deemed it necessary to go to war on the very online enthusiasts who can spread the word of a game whose reputation has been dragged through the mincer.
It is an ...
Posted by Justine at 9:15, March 28th, 2007 under Cricket, Ranting, Sport |
Shashi Tharoor has written a
wry op ed piece for the New York Times on the World Cup and how Americans are oblivious to what is preoccupying a billion plus folks at the moment. It ends thus:
In any event, nothing about cricket seems suited to the American national character: its rich complexity, the infinite possibilities that could occur with each delivery of the ball, the dozen different ways of getting out, are all patterned for a society of endless forms and varieties, not of a homogenized McWorld. They are rather like Indian classical music, in which the basic laws are laid down but the performer then improvises gloriously, unshackled by anything so mundane as a written score.
Cricket ...
Posted by Justine at 9:20, March 23rd, 2007 under Cricket, Magic! Magic! Magic! Oi! Oi! Oi!/Magic's Child, New York City/USA, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
For the next month, there's an ad for Magic's Child up on
Locus online. Tis my very first one and I'm dead excited. Ordinarily, I can't stand ads but somehow it's different when it's an ad for one of my books. That makes me want to pat it and sing it songs. Lovely, lovely ad. Designed by the fabulous Courtney Wood who also made those beautiful screensavers which you can now download from the links in the sidebar.
There is now a cover for the Science Fiction Book Club's 3-in-1 version of my trilogy. It's called The Magic or of Reason.
In other vainglorious news, the
Hathor Legacy likes Daughters of Earth, describing it as ...
Posted by Justine at 11:35, March 22nd, 2007 under Bloggery, Cricket, Daughters of Earth, Magic Lessons, Magic or Madness, Magic! Magic! Magic! Oi! Oi! Oi!/Magic's Child, New York City/USA, Praising, Sport, Vainglory, Writing & Publishing |
Every
world cup it seems
there's a debate about whether allowing in the so-called minnows of the game is a
good idea or
not. Because every world cup there are 200-plus run victories as Bermuda or Scotland or whoever are bowled out for less than a hundred by Australia or India or whoever.
It's happened again this year. Herschelle Gibbs even smashed a
world record 36 off an over against the Netherlands. For those whose maths is as poor as mine that's a six off every single ball. No one had ever it done it internationally before, not in ODIs and not in test cricket.
The argument
against the inclusion of minnows is that they help ...
Posted by Justine at 18:05, March 17th, 2007 under Cricket, Sport, State of the World |
