We won! No, I mean the Giants.

My roommate and I went to San Fran for the Giants' victory parade this morning more or less on a whim, and it was pretty awesome: a beautiful day in San Francisco, a happy crowd, a great series win, and then we walked to the Ferry Building and had lunch and gelato by the water before heading back. Hard to be disappointed about the election results in some ways, since it all pretty much went down the way Nate Silver and Fivethirtyeight told us it would. That said, I'm already looking forward to 2012. The next two years are going to be…interesting.

Happy birthday, shveta_writes!

Happy birthday, janni!

Clarkesworld Magazine has a lot of awesome content in this issue, including a story by N.K. Jemisin.

Cat Valente has been on a roll this week; I particularly appreciated her points in this post about steampunk.
And the Apex Magazine Arab/Muslim issue is out!

babarnett has a Jon Stewart photo that sums up my feelings about many things.

boundbooks has George Takei's contribution to the It Gets Better project. 

I think by now most people have heard about Fiction Alley's attempt to save itself via the Pepsi Refresh contest. rydra_wong has the link to vote for a cause that is not Fiction Alley; futuransky has a brilliant post on neoliberalism, charity, and corporations. 

And now to class, and then to read about the Sino-Soviet split. In the meantime: don't lose hope.