We put up a counter on Strange Horizons, and now I'm compulsively checking it. The numbers are still pretty darn low -- something like 100 people a day right now. But that's not surprising, since we've done almost no advertising and aren't listed in Yahoo yet or on other sf sites. It'll be a while before it reaches CS's 2000/day, or even my home page's 1000 or so a day -- but of course, it doesn't have the immediate sex pull to it. On the other hand, it may have a larger audience in the long run just because so many more people seem to read sf/f than erotica. At least publically. Hard to tell what people are reading at home on their computers, of course. We do need to get the SH numbers up to 300/day as quickly as possible, because that's what we need to get 2000/issue, which is a minimum for pro publication (if I understood Jed correctly when he was explaining it to my foggy brain last night). So read it, love it, link to it! :-)
I was supposed to talk to Bob at Crown yesterday about the CS book, but didn't manage to get in touch. I'm booked 'til after 5 NY time today, so I'll try him again tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
I'd like to go on a long rant about the stuff Columbine was talking about recently -- minimum standards of education and such. But I'm too tired. So I'll content myself with noting that I *had* one of those core curriculums -- I have learned almost everything on that list at one point or another...and I remember almost none of it. So what? I can look it up if I need it, and I rarely need. I agree that it's important to be exposed to it once, so you understand the concept. That broadens your mind and gives you a framework on which you can build your specialized knowledge, the stuff you actually use. But remembering the general stuff from day to day -- pfagh.
One of the phrases I use most often when talking to Kevin or Jed is 'remind me' -- because they do remember all that stuff. And so they remind me, or explain it briefly, and I understand it and go on with the conversation. The only reason I can think that that would be a problem would be if you were so invested in your own intelligence and education that you couldn't bear to admit that you didn't remember how to do something, or had never learned it. I know people too embarrassed to ask for the definitions of words they don't know -- not me.
That was the short version of the rant. :-)
Sleepy sleepy. Don't wanna write a response paper on Haggard, and another on Achebe. Don't wanna grade 50 quizzes. Wanna go back to bed. Oh well...