Blogs Noted: Lofty Ambitions, Robert Lanza, Gecko Tails, Gelato Baby, BldgBlog, and More

Lofty Ambitions Blog
By Douglas Dechow & Anna Leahy
P.S. Check out their guest-blog post for Madam Mayo, Top 5 Aviation Museums.


NPR: The rediscovered album, the "mysterious masterpiece," "UFO" by Jim Sullivan
It really is fine. (Did they beam him up?)

HuffPost: Dr Robert Lanza, "Is Death the End?"
Time may be what you make it.

Gecko tails
By my amiga Julie Wakemann-Linn. She's the editor of Potomac Review and a writer--- now blogging (and writing) in Tanzania.

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
More Africa: Sierra Leon after the eclipse

The Guardian: Mapping Facebook Friends
Ha, looks correlated with the entirely expected.

Gelato Baby
The pix are calorie-free.

Velly, velly twickee
How to get clicks on your facebook ads.

Pluma Fronterizo
Calling all librarians!

BldgBlog: City of Holes and streeeeetching time

SF Parking Super Efficiency Strategy
It's not for everyone. Oh so 2010. (Teux deux: get iPhone app.)

C. Westbrook Designs
3 D printed jewelry. And a case for the iPhone.

More anon.

How to Make Your Own Favicon in 5 Easy Steps

A favicon is a "favorites icon," a tiny picture that shows up in the browser's location bar. It's the same picture you'll see when you add a website to your home page.

# 1. Make an itsy bitsy pictureI like to use Apple's Keynote program, which is lickety-split.

# 2. Take a screen shot of itCommand-shift-4

# 3. Then save the screenshot as a "jpg"

# 4. Go to http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/
Follow the instructions, and be sure to save your favicon as an "ico"

# 5. Plug the "ico" file into your website's html code

In my website for “Conversations with Other Writers,” in “source mode” it looks like this:

 

   < META NAME="description" CONTENT="Podcasts of C.M. Mayo's conversations with other writers" >

  < LINK HREF="/FAVICONS/conversations-favicon.ico" REL="shortcut icon" TYPE="image/x-icon" />

  < LINK HREF="/FAVICONS/conversationso-favicon.ico" REL="icon" TYPE="image/x-icon" / >

  < LINK REL="apple-touch-icon" HREF="/FAVICONS/conversations-ipadicon.png" />

  < TITLE>C.M. Mayo's Conversations with Other Writers: a series of occasional podcasts -- listen in on podomatic.com or itunes

 

I've noted in bold where you would substitute the name of the file of your own favicon.

HOW TO MAKE AN IPADICON

An ipadicon is the same thing as a favicon, but for an iPad. Same instructions as above, but instead of making a jpeg, make a .png; no need to go to that website, just upload your .png directly into the html code.

A few of my favicons so far:

For my home page, http://www.cmmayo.com/

Maximilian von Mexikowww.cmmayo.com/maximilian.html

Giant Golden Buddha: Daily 5 Minute Writing Exercise page www.cmmayo.com/d5mwe.html

Madam Mayo Blog
http://madammayo.blogspot.com

Marfa Mondays Project
http://www.cmmayo.com/MARFA-MONDAYS.html

More anon.

Guest-Bloggers: Two Adorable Bostonian Ladies

Who have nothing more to say! Except, woof woof.

P.S. For $5, they'll "heart" you too, check it out at http://www.fiverr.com/users/kristylynn

Apropos of which, a found poem (from offers found on fiverr.com on December 10, 2010)



"I Will"


1.

I will slice your psd into html and css
I will spy on your boyfriend
I will send you a laser cut and etched gingerbread man

the list of zombie survival tips
a Hot New Toy from SANTA
a birthday card signed 'Jackie Chan' and posted from Hong Kong
my secret blogger autoblogging technique
my Family Secret recipe for Yummylicious Oriental BBQ Chicken Wings
a rock that I have energized with Reiki in your name
6 origami straw stars


I will plan your wedding in an Irish castle
I will plan your trip to Singapore
I will answer 10 questions about Berlin, Germany

4 make-up and beauty questions
three surveys of your choosing
2 questions about being a Pilot
a Contact Lens question

Any question you have about the Navy
Anything you need to know about frogs

I will ask my Magic 8 Ball any question for you

CONTINUE READING

Hell, I Knew It Was Paradise: Bob Van Wormer and the Beginning of Sportfishing in Baja

New podcast: a brief reading from my book, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions, 2007).

> LISTEN HERE

UPDATE: I just learned today, December 14, that Roberto Van Wormer, this beloved legend of Baja California, passed away a few days ago. (Strange, I had him so much on my mind in the past days... I had recorded the podcast without knowing he had passed away.) I'll post a more detailed link as soon as I can find one. Here's what I have for now (and when you click on the link, scroll down, way down, to read the comments).
http://www.bloodydecks.com/forums/baja-mexico-fishing-reports-discussion/294122-bobby-van-wormer-sr-passes.html


P.S. You can subscribe to my podcasts on podomatic.com or iTunes.

Blogs Noted: University of Chicago on Friedrich Katz, Rachael Laudan on Mexican Potatoes, Joe Ahearn's Bat Terrier, Quarterly Conversation & more

University of Chicago News
Friedrich Katz, the great historian of Mexico, has died.

The Smartly NY
Deborah Batterman on (Un)American Activities

Rachel Laudan
On why Mexican potatoes are so lousy

Colonial Mexico

Conduit of Joy

John Cleese on Creativity
(video)

109 Year Old Man
(video)

Eddy & Schein
10 Mistakes to Avoid (note especially the one about ID.)

5 Ways Augmented Reality is Making Your Life More Sharable

History Unfolding
What You Learn in France

Pen Hallow Press
Independent publishing and letterpress publishing

The Quarterly Conversation
Fall 2010 issue

Eternal Earthbound Pets
Not a blog but, oh well, maybe when the Rapture comes...

Answers from SilenceAn enlightened take on 2012

Bat Terrier
Joe Ahearn's blog

www.core77.com
A good on-line design mag.

http://jbrae72.popslice.com/07.-videos (video) San Francisco earthquake footage.

Ein Kaiser unterwegs (An Emperor en Route)

New post over at the Maximilian ~ Carlota blog , on Konrad Ratz and Amparo Gómez Tepexicuapan's book on Maximilian's travels 1864 - 1867.

The Maximilian ~ Carlota blog, a blog for researchers (both serious and armchair) on Mexico's Second Empire / French Intervention, is updated on Tuesdays.

Book Trailer for Sky Over El Nido

I am endlessly astonished by the changes in the book business. As a writer, it feels like riding the Matterhorn: I'm never sure what's around the next bend (a dip or the Yeti?). Back in 1995, when the University of Georgia Press published Sky Over El Nido, my first collection of stories, a book typically came out in hardcover, received a passle of reviews from magazines and newspapers, and then (if luck had it) there would be paperback edition. Maybe movie options. Maybe foreign rights. Maybe (very rarely) audio. But that was pretty much the whole show. And in less than a slew of weeks, the book would be gone from the bookstore shelves-- adios! Out of sight, out of mind, out of print. (And whoever bothered to read back issues of newspapers for old reviews?) Now, of course, we have websites (mine, www.cmmayo.com, went live in 1999). We have e-books outselling print books, and who knows, maybe "vooks" (video books) will soon take off. Newspaper and magazine reviews are ever scarcer, while blogs, legions of them, have filled in the vaccuum. And because of on-line booksellers such as amazon.com, buyers can find a universe of books, from ye olde best-sellers to the most obscurely self-published, from 1895 or 2005, 2010 or 1973--- and at 4 am, should they happen to be surfing at such an hour.

So: herewith, some 15 years after the book's original publication, is the trailer, a 2 minute video, for Sky Over El Nido. Yes, Sky Over El Nido is still in print in a paperback edition. E-book coming soon.

Feria Internacional del Libro, Guadalajara: El último príncipe del Imperio Mexicano

This Saturday November 27th at 6 pm at the Feria Internacional del Libro in Guadalajara, I will be presenting my novel, El último príncipe del Imperio Mexicano (Grijalbo Random House Mondadori), which is the magnificent translation by Agustín Cadena of my novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire (Unbridled Books).

(Last year, I presented the English version, and blogged about the fair here and here--- and also about Literal, its editor, my amiga Rose Mary Salum, and a little literary history including about Tameme and El corno emplumado. One of the people I was especially happy to see last year was Spanish and Ladino translator Trudy Balch, who, alas, passed away last month in New York. Read Trudy's fascinating guest-blog post about Mexican activist Gaby Brimmer here.)

The two writers who will be presenting my novel at FIL are Carlos Pascual (author of La insurgenta, winner of the Grijalbo award for best bicentennial historical novel), and historian Alejandro Rosas. (Alejandro also presented the English version of the novel in Mexico City last year.)

P.S. Carlos is also an actor; I think he may read a section of the novel.

The details / Los detalles:
27/11/2010
Presentación del libro
El último príncipe del imperio mexicano por C.M. Mayo
Presentan:
Carlos Pascual, Alejandro Rosas
Horario:
18:00 a 18:50
Salón Elías Nandino, planta alta, Expo Guadalajara

The event is free and open to the public.

More anon.

Trudy Balch

Trudy Balch, translator of Spanish and Ladino, rest in peace. It was an honor to have known you.

P.S. Read Trudy's guest-blog post for Madam Mayo blog, about her translation of Gaby Brimmer's most unusual memoir, here.

My Recollections of Maximilian by Marie de la Fère: A Rare English Language Eyewitness Memoir

The historian Robert Ryal Miller mentioned this rare manuscript, a circa 1910 English language handwritten eyewitness memoir of Maximilian, in a letter to me some years ago. He had found it at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, and was preparing an edited and annotated version for publication. Alas, Miller died in 2004 without, as far as I know, having published it. I have not seen what Miller wrote, I am sad to say, for I understand he had identified the author whose name was not — as I too, immediately suspected -- "Marie de la Fère." When I visited the Bancroft as part of my own research for my novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, I dutifully looked up this manuscript. I was glad I did, for, among so many other things, it gave me insight into the strong feelings of the monarchists and Maximilian's character. After Miller's death, as I felt this memoir deserved more readers than we intrepid few who have eyes for microfiches... Continue reading about it at my other blog, "Maximilian ~ Carlota."