There are giant slabs of concrete connecting the world.

You will rarely find a place (that is, in the U.S.) that you can't get to by road (dirt, concrete, asphalt, etc).

If you guys hadn't heard, I went on a ROAD TRIP last night and today (I AM BACK NOW AFTER THINKING THAT I WAS GOING TO DIE BECAUSE OF THE SNOW). It took four hours (give or take a half hour) to get there (and then back). During that time it was dark and I was tired and bored and I can't sleep in cars so I just thought.

And y'know what I thought? I thought about how many FREAKING roads and highways there are. They cut clear through forests and give reason for people to drive drive drive and kill kill kill the world.

I think that's stupid.

I was also thinking about what Scott Westerfeld said at a book event thingy. He was talking about how roads and highways connect everything. But in two (almost three) of his books, Leviathan and Behemoth, they use walkers. And the walkers don't need roads. And he said that the world could have easily gone that way. Screw wheels, legs are more efficient. (If any of you read my post on fabulousness from the booky thingy when Scott Westerfeld came to town, I couldn't find the picture of a kid wearing a fez and on a walker thing and THIS IS IT.)

But we decided that killing things and taking up so many resources is a good idea. I know what you're saying. 'BUT ERIN CONCRETE IS STUPID AND NO ONE CARES ABOUT USING IT UP!' but I'm saying that all the zillions and gabillions of signs they use every few feet is a waste of metal. Also the concrete takes up space that could totally be used for like, fixing the freaking world because stupid global warming.

So pretty much what I was thinking is that the world is stupid. You have heard me angst enough, I am tired (I totally walked like, five miles today D:) and I'm going to bed now.

Scott Westerfeld is one of my own personal gods.

So tonight, Scott Westerfeld visited my fabulous town of towniness. Disclaimer: Read the title of this post.

So he came and spoke and signed books and answered questions and I was so excited and I almost cried and I had an internal panic attack and it was just the most amazing thing ever. While he was speaking, I decided to write down some quotes. They're pretty amazing, though a few need to be explained.

• While talking about where he/other authors get their ideas... "We make shit up... (he glances over to the one or two young children in the crowd) Sorry, kids."
• Discussing creepy dentists... "Where do you want your teeth to be in five years?"
• When talking about his books being translated into other languages, he talks about flipping through a french version of Uglies and says "I know that hoverboard is planche." 
• He asks a question that no one knows the answer to, someone guesses it, and guesses correctly: "...Yes.......But you're just guessing that!"
• While he was showing us slides about how hand-drawn pictures disappeared from books in the 1920's because of cameras, he said "It's such an early camera, notice how the camera is hand-drawn."
• Right after what was said above, "People did not get imaginations in 1920, they got THE CAMERA!"
• A slide in the powerpoint popped up of a walker (something from Leviathan, if you haven't read it, read it). Read it in a whiny voice. "Why is it a giant walking tank?"
• I don't really remember what relevance it had to what he was talking about, but he was talking about TV... "I secretly hope that either the doctor or the lawyer is a vampire... or an alien."
• This one takes a kinda long explanation. So apparently he was talking to Keith Thompson, the guy who does his art, and he told him to just draw a chase scene (I believe) and he did and he came up with this and he said    that the walker was kind of ridiculous and that no one would ever make something like that. And then we were showed a real picture of a kid on something exactly like it, wearing a fez, found by Keith Thompson. It was strangely scary and I wish I could find it on google, but I can't, since I can't remember the name. But anyway, apparently, when the illustrator sent that picture to him... "And he said, "OH REALLY?" After that being called lame.
• This needs no explanation. "Which I think means totally fucking stupid. That kid does not look happy. Which is partially fez-related."
• "I can't get in a fight with Keith, he's Canadian!"
• When he showed us a photo of a diorama made to show his illustrator how he wanted a picture to be set up, we laughed and he said "Surely you are not laughing at my diorama."
• As he was discussing how to honor Australia in Leviathan... "It was either a tazmanian tiger or the Sydney Opera House."
• Think of the same whiny voice as that other quote at the beginning. "So why is it a jellyfish, Scott?"
• Basically a summary of how the Darwinists came to be in Leviathan: "If Origin of Species was a cookbook."
• "Between asymmetry and people jumping off of shit, you can write a billion novels."
• When he was talking about when he was thinking about adding another book to the trilogy just for extra art... "This is a trilogy! We can't have a fourth book!"
• Discussing realizing spacing... "I had to replance 'Alek crossed his legs' with 'Alek crossed his eyes.'"
• Showing off fanart... "You can tell it's manga because it's windy!"

So those were the highlights of Scott Westerfeld coming and being fabulous. He is a genius and fabulous and he should definitely make this place a permanent stop on his tour list. I also got four books signed. It would have been five (maybe six) if two friends had returned Behemoth and Pretties to me in time. D:<

So for all of you that live around here and didn't go and like his writing, you guys are big stupid-heads because that's stupid because he is fabulous and stupid-heads.