I tend to hoard interesting links and reviews of Rosemary and Rue until they hit a certain critical mass, at which point my choices become "make a post" or "suffer from a browser crash." Because this is how I sort of preserve things for future reference, here's the latest in our "Seanan likes reviews" series of entries.
Over at ALPHA Reader, Danielle has posted a lovely, well-considered review. She says "I really loved this book" and "McGuire is currently contracted for three books, but has six planned all together." Won't she be surprised when we reach book eight? (To be clear, I am currently contracted through book three, working on book five, and clearly outlined through book nine. I clearly never want to sleep again.)
The Williamsburg Regional Library posts a daily book recommendation, and recently Rosemary and Rue was their book of the day. Their Circulation Services Director says "What makes this book original are the myriad details. A wealth of characters from fantasy—Daoine Sidhe, Kitsune, Undine, Cait Sidhe, as well as goblins, selkies, and a variety of changeling combinations populate both Faerie and the human realm. It's interesting to see how the different races interact with each other." Yay world-building for the win!
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
ashnistrike has posted a brief review, and says "It's very good urban fantasy—not so brilliant as to make me do cartwheels and cry because the next one isn't out yet, but good enough that I will buy the next as soon as it's available."
Our next review comes from the Warren Public Library, and says "It's a gripping mystery with a lot of urban fantasy thrown in to the mix, and as Toby delves into the dark side of her past and present (and maybe even future), you'll learn about the world of the fullblooded fairies and the halfblooded changelings that inhabit the California coast." Works for me.
Renee's Book Addiction (and, one presumes, Renee) says "This was a really enjoyable new UF (urban fantasy) series. I love stories about the fae, and the San Francisco setting really made the story vivid for me."
Finally for tonight's roundup, Felicia Day sounds off on the topic of Toby. She says "This book had a GREAT setting and environment, I was engrossed in the mystery and, (although a bit exposition-y in sections) I was along for the ride the whole way and immersed in the mythology." She has some plot issues (which are spoilery if you haven't read the book), but it was a positive review, and I couldn't be happier.
That's it for tonight. Join me next week when I try to close down Firefox without using a hammer. Again.
Over at ALPHA Reader, Danielle has posted a lovely, well-considered review. She says "I really loved this book" and "McGuire is currently contracted for three books, but has six planned all together." Won't she be surprised when we reach book eight? (To be clear, I am currently contracted through book three, working on book five, and clearly outlined through book nine. I clearly never want to sleep again.)
The Williamsburg Regional Library posts a daily book recommendation, and recently Rosemary and Rue was their book of the day. Their Circulation Services Director says "What makes this book original are the myriad details. A wealth of characters from fantasy—Daoine Sidhe, Kitsune, Undine, Cait Sidhe, as well as goblins, selkies, and a variety of changeling combinations populate both Faerie and the human realm. It's interesting to see how the different races interact with each other." Yay world-building for the win!
ashnistrike has posted a brief review, and says "It's very good urban fantasy—not so brilliant as to make me do cartwheels and cry because the next one isn't out yet, but good enough that I will buy the next as soon as it's available."Our next review comes from the Warren Public Library, and says "It's a gripping mystery with a lot of urban fantasy thrown in to the mix, and as Toby delves into the dark side of her past and present (and maybe even future), you'll learn about the world of the fullblooded fairies and the halfblooded changelings that inhabit the California coast." Works for me.
Renee's Book Addiction (and, one presumes, Renee) says "This was a really enjoyable new UF (urban fantasy) series. I love stories about the fae, and the San Francisco setting really made the story vivid for me."
Finally for tonight's roundup, Felicia Day sounds off on the topic of Toby. She says "This book had a GREAT setting and environment, I was engrossed in the mystery and, (although a bit exposition-y in sections) I was along for the ride the whole way and immersed in the mythology." She has some plot issues (which are spoilery if you haven't read the book), but it was a positive review, and I couldn't be happier.
That's it for tonight. Join me next week when I try to close down Firefox without using a hammer. Again.
- Mood:
ecstatic - Music:Glee, "Don't Rain On My Parade."
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small}
Museum version with square cupcakes.
Different version with round cupcakes.
So cupcake cakes can too be cool. What would be really awesome is to match the number of elements in one (or more) section to the number of candles required for a birthday.
Different version with round cupcakes.
So cupcake cakes can too be cool. What would be really awesome is to match the number of elements in one (or more) section to the number of candles required for a birthday.
- Mood:
amused
With the holiday season comes the time for giving gifts, in most cultures. The gifts we give show how well we know the recipient. When you can give something that is a surprise, but exactly what the person would have wanted if they had known about it, you are demonstrating that you know them well enough to understand what makes them happy. That ranges from mundane details like clothing size to more abstract features such as favorite colors.
Zen shopping is the art of going out somewhere with a list of people in mind, but not a list of specific gifts. This works best in a place with lots of different options such as a flea market, bohemian street, or mall. You wander around and wait for something to catch your eye. As you stroll, think about the people on your list and imagine what kind of things they would like. Let your mind drift over "favorites" -- favorite color, favorite fabric, animals they think are cute, the music they listen to, etc. Don't be afraid to stop and poke through a table of goodies, but in general, keep your eyes moving -- up and down as well as side to side, because sometimes the nifty things are in odd places. Ideally you should reach a sort of meditative space in which the right gifts seem to jump out at you, look extra shiny, or otherwise grab your attention. You'll know who each one is for.
Another name for this skill is "channeling Santa Claus," particularly if you are shopping for children. There is a certain layer of reality in which wishes and desires are collected. With a little practice you can tune into that and gain an intuition for what gifts would appeal to someone. Santa Claus is just one of many holiday gift-givers such as Joulupukki or Frau Holde. Focus on whichever one comes with your tradition(s).
Talk with your friends and family about gifts. Different families have different traditions. Some people think that gift cards are tacky, while others like them. Some people think that homemade gifts show love and care, while others prefer storebought gifts. Some people appreciate intangible gifts, such as a coupon for a weekend of childcare or a tree planted in a National Forest; others don't. Ideally, find out what the people on your shopping list consider to be appropriate gifts, and aim for that. Don't feel compelled to break your budget, though. It's usually possible to find something that will suit, for a reasonable price. Think outside the box!
Zen shopping is the art of going out somewhere with a list of people in mind, but not a list of specific gifts. This works best in a place with lots of different options such as a flea market, bohemian street, or mall. You wander around and wait for something to catch your eye. As you stroll, think about the people on your list and imagine what kind of things they would like. Let your mind drift over "favorites" -- favorite color, favorite fabric, animals they think are cute, the music they listen to, etc. Don't be afraid to stop and poke through a table of goodies, but in general, keep your eyes moving -- up and down as well as side to side, because sometimes the nifty things are in odd places. Ideally you should reach a sort of meditative space in which the right gifts seem to jump out at you, look extra shiny, or otherwise grab your attention. You'll know who each one is for.
Another name for this skill is "channeling Santa Claus," particularly if you are shopping for children. There is a certain layer of reality in which wishes and desires are collected. With a little practice you can tune into that and gain an intuition for what gifts would appeal to someone. Santa Claus is just one of many holiday gift-givers such as Joulupukki or Frau Holde. Focus on whichever one comes with your tradition(s).
Talk with your friends and family about gifts. Different families have different traditions. Some people think that gift cards are tacky, while others like them. Some people think that homemade gifts show love and care, while others prefer storebought gifts. Some people appreciate intangible gifts, such as a coupon for a weekend of childcare or a tree planted in a National Forest; others don't. Ideally, find out what the people on your shopping list consider to be appropriate gifts, and aim for that. Don't feel compelled to break your budget, though. It's usually possible to find something that will suit, for a reasonable price. Think outside the box!
- Mood:
thoughtful
Spent time with a dear best friend, pampered skin and hair, watched episodes of the now-dead HBO series Rome, played with cats, generally relaxed. I have been having great fun reading through the webcomic Abstruse Goose.
With Adam's encouragement, I printed out a copy of the first nineteen chapters of the book, wincing, as I plan on ripping most of it apart and polishing until it is raw. Perhaps I really was too deeply affected by the haughtiness of that one stranger on that forum who scolded, insulted, and accused every time I said I enjoyed books and authors that she loathed. Or perhaps I am still growing as a writer; yes, I will go with that.
I need to sleep soon. I'm not at all tired. Shower might help. Husband has tomorrow off. His trip to China is a memory.
With Adam's encouragement, I printed out a copy of the first nineteen chapters of the book, wincing, as I plan on ripping most of it apart and polishing until it is raw. Perhaps I really was too deeply affected by the haughtiness of that one stranger on that forum who scolded, insulted, and accused every time I said I enjoyed books and authors that she loathed. Or perhaps I am still growing as a writer; yes, I will go with that.
I need to sleep soon. I'm not at all tired. Shower might help. Husband has tomorrow off. His trip to China is a memory.
- Mood:
contemplative
- Mood:
busy
Words: 6,418.
Total words: 77,039.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter fourteen, time to work on my page proofs.
Music: Eddie From Ohio.
Lilly and Alice: warming my feet.
What does a two hundred page zombie novel do to its author? Anything it wants. I swear, working on this book is like riding a roller coaster with no brakes. The ride operators are evil clowns, and if I sleep, they'll eat me. I get up, go to work, write on the train. Get off work, go home, write on the train. I feel like I'm in a foot race with my own brain. But I really like what's coming out on the other end; it could definitely be worse.
I did the math today, and realized that I'll only have fifty-nine days between the release of A Local Habitation and the release of Feed. That's nowhere near long enough. That's all the time in the world. So in the interests of only going a little crazy during that narrow window, I'm slamming through Blackout as fast as I can without losing my footing, and I'm enjoying every second of this crazy ride.
Plus it's a question to contact scientists and ask them horrible questions.
My baby is turning into a real live book, with a real live plot and real live problems, and I couldn't be happier.
Total words: 77,039.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter fourteen, time to work on my page proofs.
Music: Eddie From Ohio.
Lilly and Alice: warming my feet.
What does a two hundred page zombie novel do to its author? Anything it wants. I swear, working on this book is like riding a roller coaster with no brakes. The ride operators are evil clowns, and if I sleep, they'll eat me. I get up, go to work, write on the train. Get off work, go home, write on the train. I feel like I'm in a foot race with my own brain. But I really like what's coming out on the other end; it could definitely be worse.
I did the math today, and realized that I'll only have fifty-nine days between the release of A Local Habitation and the release of Feed. That's nowhere near long enough. That's all the time in the world. So in the interests of only going a little crazy during that narrow window, I'm slamming through Blackout as fast as I can without losing my footing, and I'm enjoying every second of this crazy ride.
Plus it's a question to contact scientists and ask them horrible questions.
My baby is turning into a real live book, with a real live plot and real live problems, and I couldn't be happier.
- Mood: ecstatic
- Music:EFO, "Three Fine Daughters of Farmer Brown."
- 12:35:57: My guest blogger today is LA Burton http://naomi-jay.livejournal.com/181100.h
tml - check out her thoughts on creating characters - 14:21:28: Just started reading Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - OMG, this book is genius!
- 17:35:19: @Scarimonious Predator X would totally take Cthulhu in a space fight: Discuss.
- 17:46:39: @Scarimonious I await your opening salvo with interest
- 18:06:04: @StaciaKane Crackle? Rush? Rustle?
- 18:12:58: I want this game to be real! http://naomi-jay.livejournal.com/181438.h
tml - 22:38:04: About to attempt to do all my Christmas shopping in one go. Ha ha ha, no really
- 23:30:00: 1 hour later... two gifts bought...
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Look.
You guys KNOW I'm sick. You KNOW I've been having a shitty week, you KNOW it's a lot, on a bad day, to haul myself out of bed to come hang out.
So why, pray tell, would... *counts* Four of you all harass me into going someplace, multiple comments left on a facebook status I made begging me to go because you miss me and want to see me. Over and over again. I concede, end up getting out of bed an hour before I have to be there... get dressed, gear up the dog, and try not to look terrible. In the process of doing so I black out twice, but hey, I haven't seen you guys in weeks and I miss you.
And then I get there and nobody's there. It's just me and the meeting facilitators... for... two... hours. Nobody fucking bothered to show up. Not ONE of you, who begged me to go. Oh, wait, I found out later that you WERE there, but then decided to fuck off and leave because there was a cop in the area. Fuck you guys. I'm not coming next time.
(And having the audacity to act like I'm being unreasonable for being upset/angry about this? The cherry on top, obviously.)
You guys KNOW I'm sick. You KNOW I've been having a shitty week, you KNOW it's a lot, on a bad day, to haul myself out of bed to come hang out.
So why, pray tell, would... *counts* Four of you all harass me into going someplace, multiple comments left on a facebook status I made begging me to go because you miss me and want to see me. Over and over again. I concede, end up getting out of bed an hour before I have to be there... get dressed, gear up the dog, and try not to look terrible. In the process of doing so I black out twice, but hey, I haven't seen you guys in weeks and I miss you.
And then I get there and nobody's there. It's just me and the meeting facilitators... for... two... hours. Nobody fucking bothered to show up. Not ONE of you, who begged me to go. Oh, wait, I found out later that you WERE there, but then decided to fuck off and leave because there was a cop in the area. Fuck you guys. I'm not coming next time.
(And having the audacity to act like I'm being unreasonable for being upset/angry about this? The cherry on top, obviously.)
Hello, I am new
I was diagnosed this year with a rare genetic disorder called Familial Mediterranean Fever.
Has anyone heard of this or know someone with it?
It took almost a year after symptoms started to even get any tests done since I didn't have insurance. So I forced myself to work fory hours a week through appendix-like sharp cramping, joint pain,shooting nerve pain, gastrointestinal problems - all on the right side of my body. It all just kept getting worse and worse and I didn't know if I had MS or cancer or what, and doctors were just treating me like I was nuts because they couldn't see my symptoms. Even though the joints in my hand started looking more and more like rheumatoid arthritis, getting purple and swollen sometimes.
And then I got lucky when my primary care doctor sent me to a rheumatologist, who specialized in Lupus, and who just happened to have family in the Middle East with the disorder, so he knew the symptoms and had a DNA test done to find the mutated gene.
But he really knows nothing about it since he's a Lupus specialist and just keeps throwing Prednisone at me, which has horrible side effects. He said there are no specialists in the US. Also, a few of my housemates are also all sick with weird auto-immune symptoms that are undiagnosed and I don't understand how they can have similar symptoms when I supposedley was born with this and it's in my blood. They all think it's a total coincidence somehow even though we all became sick while living here.
And a few of my relatives have weird similar symptoms but also think it's totally unrelated to mine - I feel like I'm the only one making these connections.
I was diagnosed this year with a rare genetic disorder called Familial Mediterranean Fever.
Has anyone heard of this or know someone with it?
It took almost a year after symptoms started to even get any tests done since I didn't have insurance. So I forced myself to work fory hours a week through appendix-like sharp cramping, joint pain,shooting nerve pain, gastrointestinal problems - all on the right side of my body. It all just kept getting worse and worse and I didn't know if I had MS or cancer or what, and doctors were just treating me like I was nuts because they couldn't see my symptoms. Even though the joints in my hand started looking more and more like rheumatoid arthritis, getting purple and swollen sometimes.
And then I got lucky when my primary care doctor sent me to a rheumatologist, who specialized in Lupus, and who just happened to have family in the Middle East with the disorder, so he knew the symptoms and had a DNA test done to find the mutated gene.
But he really knows nothing about it since he's a Lupus specialist and just keeps throwing Prednisone at me, which has horrible side effects. He said there are no specialists in the US. Also, a few of my housemates are also all sick with weird auto-immune symptoms that are undiagnosed and I don't understand how they can have similar symptoms when I supposedley was born with this and it's in my blood. They all think it's a total coincidence somehow even though we all became sick while living here.
And a few of my relatives have weird similar symptoms but also think it's totally unrelated to mine - I feel like I'm the only one making these connections.
Is there a straight cis-gendered person who writes and/or reads slash fanfiction planning on attending Infinitus who might be interested in working on a programming proposal with me about slash, fetishization, misogyny and the whole kit-and-kaboodle of AWKWARD?
Man, I make shit sound appealing, don't I?
Man, I make shit sound appealing, don't I?
Which is why we ended up not eating this particular watermelon after we sliced it open. It also smelled a bit off, which added confirmation to our decision, but, really: Creepy animal flesh-looking watermelon was a “do not consume” item as soon as we cut it open. We all feel good about this decision.
We've been up to our eyelashes this week in computer issues--check out kateslover 's journal for the grisly details, unless computer stuff makes your eyes just glaze over entirely!
My ancient custom-built critter really was on its last legs...didn't realize how close to kaput it was till we were trying to make the transfer between machines and first the graphics card died and then the old monitor blew up with a great puff of smoke! Happily, we were home and quickly dealt with it...
So here's the handsome new baby in our household...a powerful HP laptop
. J. did lots of research and decided that as many graphics as I deal with, and heading toward videos, I needed something built at least in this century. It's PRETTY, it's compact, and it's lightyears ahead of my old machine in RAM and storage capacity. Faster, too..
And did I mention compact? My desk actually has ROOM now.
I MISS XP, though--the new baby is Windows 7 and wants everybody to be as modern as it is. Doesn't want to play nice with my venerable and dependable programs...so I'm learning A LOT, FAST.
We're still not all the way back to letting me actually get my WORK done efficiently, but we're getting there...
So since it's been frigid the last couple of days I decided comfort food was just what I needed. Beans and ham, and grandma's cornbread, YUM. My husband is not fond of this stuff, but I am, so for a change I made something just because I wanted it, with an offer to fix him anything he wanted, too. (He DESERVES it, with all the work he's been putting in! My hero...) He even braved the snow for me yesterday and brought back dry beans, which I soaked overnight.
Um. Well.
I had some rather robust smoked ham that was a bit much, by itself, so figured I'd use it in the beans. We bought organic yellow onions, couldn't find the lovely sweet ones--they're a tad strong . I forgot to pour off the bean-soaking water. Some combination of elements resulted in an incredibly NASTY mess! The aroma rising from my longed-for pot of beans smelled more like lighter fluid!
Joseph said "er...does that really smell good to you??"
NO, it smelled AWFUL. Chemical.
I tasted it.
Seriously AWFUL.
We decided it was the ham, so our local raccoons are going to have a feast tonight! The rest can compost!
I had half the bag of beans left, and I just started over. Soaked the beans in hot water, brought them to a boil, used up the last of the hog jowl browned a bit, and still needed ham.
This time I braved the cold, dug out the Jeep, and ran to the local mom-and-pop for a plain, lovely, lightly-smoked ham steak.
I diced about 2/3 for the beans, added a bay leaf, and let it simmer.
Meanwhile, I mixed up a batch of my grandmother's cornbread and popped it in the oven...
He Who Doesn't Care for Beans and Ham had two bowls, plus two pieces of cornbread. :-)
We NEEDED that comfort food! It's been a solid week of messing with my computer switchover, in addition to teaching my class and writing lessons and PDFs. And I can have cornbread and milk for breakfast.
You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl!
kateslover 's journal for the grisly details, unless computer stuff makes your eyes just glaze over entirely! My ancient custom-built critter really was on its last legs...didn't realize how close to kaput it was till we were trying to make the transfer between machines and first the graphics card died and then the old monitor blew up with a great puff of smoke! Happily, we were home and quickly dealt with it...
So here's the handsome new baby in our household...a powerful HP laptop
. J. did lots of research and decided that as many graphics as I deal with, and heading toward videos, I needed something built at least in this century. It's PRETTY, it's compact, and it's lightyears ahead of my old machine in RAM and storage capacity. Faster, too..And did I mention compact? My desk actually has ROOM now.
I MISS XP, though--the new baby is Windows 7 and wants everybody to be as modern as it is. Doesn't want to play nice with my venerable and dependable programs...so I'm learning A LOT, FAST.
We're still not all the way back to letting me actually get my WORK done efficiently, but we're getting there...
So since it's been frigid the last couple of days I decided comfort food was just what I needed. Beans and ham, and grandma's cornbread, YUM. My husband is not fond of this stuff, but I am, so for a change I made something just because I wanted it, with an offer to fix him anything he wanted, too. (He DESERVES it, with all the work he's been putting in! My hero...) He even braved the snow for me yesterday and brought back dry beans, which I soaked overnight.
Um. Well.
I had some rather robust smoked ham that was a bit much, by itself, so figured I'd use it in the beans. We bought organic yellow onions, couldn't find the lovely sweet ones--they're a tad strong . I forgot to pour off the bean-soaking water. Some combination of elements resulted in an incredibly NASTY mess! The aroma rising from my longed-for pot of beans smelled more like lighter fluid!
Joseph said "er...does that really smell good to you??"
NO, it smelled AWFUL. Chemical.
I tasted it.
Seriously AWFUL.
We decided it was the ham, so our local raccoons are going to have a feast tonight! The rest can compost!
I had half the bag of beans left, and I just started over. Soaked the beans in hot water, brought them to a boil, used up the last of the hog jowl browned a bit, and still needed ham.
This time I braved the cold, dug out the Jeep, and ran to the local mom-and-pop for a plain, lovely, lightly-smoked ham steak.
I diced about 2/3 for the beans, added a bay leaf, and let it simmer.
Meanwhile, I mixed up a batch of my grandmother's cornbread and popped it in the oven...
He Who Doesn't Care for Beans and Ham had two bowls, plus two pieces of cornbread. :-)
We NEEDED that comfort food! It's been a solid week of messing with my computer switchover, in addition to teaching my class and writing lessons and PDFs. And I can have cornbread and milk for breakfast.
You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl!
- Mood:
cold
I've gotten some excellent responses to my request for a co-Mod--I'm at work, so I can't respond to them all today, but I will be online tomorrow briefly (thanks to the power of public libraries), so I will get back to everyone tomorrow. In the meantime, be well, do good work, and keep in touch. (Wait a minute, that's Garrison Keillor!) :)
Two warnings.
First, if you're not even remotely interested in computers and you find your eyes glazing over after a sentence or two, that's OK - no offense taken.
Second and more important: before I even begin this tale, do NOT tell me all our problems would be solved by switching to a Mac.
Seriously. Don't go there.
Anyway, Kate’s old desktop was on its last legs – we really had no idea how far gone it was until we actually replaced it with a new desktop-replacement laptop. At least the replacement came with Windows 7 so we dodged the Vista bullet. My notebook and our netbook use XP.
I had set up the old desktop in the kitchen to help with the transition, which was aided significantly by a 500 GB portable hard drive. I got what I wanted from it so I took it down. Then I thought I needed something else so I set it up on the living room floor.
Turned it on. Nothing.
OK, maybe the old monitor had decided it was a good day to die. It had been stored rather haphazardly in our very damp basement since replacing it with a flat screen last month. So I hooked up the new monitor.
Still nothing.
So we called our computer guy and arranged to drop off the CPU with him. Turns out the problem was an add-on video card that had shot craps so he just took it out and activated the built-in one. But in the meantime I had left both the CPU and the monitor plugged in.
Later, I heard a very loud “SNAP!” I figured the cats had done something – they’re always knocking things over.
Nope. The old monitor had smoked itself. It was, in fact, a good day to die.
Hopefully that’s it for the hardware woes. We get the old CPU back tomorrow. There are still some cool fonts and some odds and ends to be retrieved from it, but they'll keep.
Kate has used Outlook Express for a decade or so, but unfortunately, OE has been replaced in Windows 7 with Windows Live Mail. Since I’ve used Outlook for almost as long, I figured it'd be easier to use that because that meant only one of us had to learn a new program and it's similar so her learning curve wouldn't be too steep. But for some reason the Outlook import feature doesn’t work in Windows 7 – no idea why, it just says it can’t open the folder where I put the OE mailbox and address book.
I was able to transfer Kate's OE to my laptop, but since I'm using Outlook, exporting her files would put them in MY Outlook. Not good. I thought I'd upload Outlook to the old CPU when we got it back (this was the "something else" I thought I needed), but then I remembered the netbook. It has both OE and Outlook on it and it had not been set up for either of our e-mail accounts. So I transferred all of Kate’s e-mail, folders and address book to it, then I was able to export everything to Outlook. HOME FREE!
Not quite.
I was able to transfer her e-mail folders to the new laptop without too much difficulty. And I was able to transfer her Contacts list easily. The problem was she has quite a few distribution lists (DLs) that she depends on to publish her monthly Art Tips, make press announcements, contact her students and the like. The headers for the DLs were all there, but when I opened them in Outlook they were empty.
Fortunately, she had saved her Art Tip DLs to draft e-mails - these were the most critical because she has well over a thousand people who have signed up to receive them. Our ISP only allows mail to 150 addresses at a time so she has EIGHT DLs for that alone! So I had her send those e-mails to me and with a little tweaking I was able to recreate them. Then I went back to OE on the netbook and transferred the remaining DLs to a Word document. I was able to copy and paste those into the old headers, so now she’s as good to go as she’s gonna get.
Except that she is totally dependent on WordPerfect X3, and Windows 7 and AVG don’t seem to want to play well with it, even when you run it in XP compatible mode. So we may have to upgrade to X4 – at least Corel claims that it’s Windows 7 compatible.
Squee.
First, if you're not even remotely interested in computers and you find your eyes glazing over after a sentence or two, that's OK - no offense taken.
Second and more important: before I even begin this tale, do NOT tell me all our problems would be solved by switching to a Mac.
Seriously. Don't go there.
Anyway, Kate’s old desktop was on its last legs – we really had no idea how far gone it was until we actually replaced it with a new desktop-replacement laptop. At least the replacement came with Windows 7 so we dodged the Vista bullet. My notebook and our netbook use XP.
I had set up the old desktop in the kitchen to help with the transition, which was aided significantly by a 500 GB portable hard drive. I got what I wanted from it so I took it down. Then I thought I needed something else so I set it up on the living room floor.
Turned it on. Nothing.
OK, maybe the old monitor had decided it was a good day to die. It had been stored rather haphazardly in our very damp basement since replacing it with a flat screen last month. So I hooked up the new monitor.
Still nothing.
So we called our computer guy and arranged to drop off the CPU with him. Turns out the problem was an add-on video card that had shot craps so he just took it out and activated the built-in one. But in the meantime I had left both the CPU and the monitor plugged in.
Later, I heard a very loud “SNAP!” I figured the cats had done something – they’re always knocking things over.
Nope. The old monitor had smoked itself. It was, in fact, a good day to die.
Hopefully that’s it for the hardware woes. We get the old CPU back tomorrow. There are still some cool fonts and some odds and ends to be retrieved from it, but they'll keep.
Kate has used Outlook Express for a decade or so, but unfortunately, OE has been replaced in Windows 7 with Windows Live Mail. Since I’ve used Outlook for almost as long, I figured it'd be easier to use that because that meant only one of us had to learn a new program and it's similar so her learning curve wouldn't be too steep. But for some reason the Outlook import feature doesn’t work in Windows 7 – no idea why, it just says it can’t open the folder where I put the OE mailbox and address book.
I was able to transfer Kate's OE to my laptop, but since I'm using Outlook, exporting her files would put them in MY Outlook. Not good. I thought I'd upload Outlook to the old CPU when we got it back (this was the "something else" I thought I needed), but then I remembered the netbook. It has both OE and Outlook on it and it had not been set up for either of our e-mail accounts. So I transferred all of Kate’s e-mail, folders and address book to it, then I was able to export everything to Outlook. HOME FREE!
Not quite.
I was able to transfer her e-mail folders to the new laptop without too much difficulty. And I was able to transfer her Contacts list easily. The problem was she has quite a few distribution lists (DLs) that she depends on to publish her monthly Art Tips, make press announcements, contact her students and the like. The headers for the DLs were all there, but when I opened them in Outlook they were empty.
Fortunately, she had saved her Art Tip DLs to draft e-mails - these were the most critical because she has well over a thousand people who have signed up to receive them. Our ISP only allows mail to 150 addresses at a time so she has EIGHT DLs for that alone! So I had her send those e-mails to me and with a little tweaking I was able to recreate them. Then I went back to OE on the netbook and transferred the remaining DLs to a Word document. I was able to copy and paste those into the old headers, so now she’s as good to go as she’s gonna get.
Except that she is totally dependent on WordPerfect X3, and Windows 7 and AVG don’t seem to want to play well with it, even when you run it in XP compatible mode. So we may have to upgrade to X4 – at least Corel claims that it’s Windows 7 compatible.
Squee.
- Music:"Never Ending Road," Loreena McKennett
Please tell me and entertain me!
Mine's probably raw octopus and quail eggs.
(Okay, but real food only. Outrageous claims like "I once ate the foam stuffing out of an old armchair cushion and washed it down with fishtank de-chlorinator" don't count)
Mine's probably raw octopus and quail eggs.
(Okay, but real food only. Outrageous claims like "I once ate the foam stuffing out of an old armchair cushion and washed it down with fishtank de-chlorinator" don't count)
*sleigh bells jingling*
This poem came out of the December 1, 2009 poetry fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from i_id who works on the replica ship built in the image of the original Lady Washington. If you stretch a bit, you can sing this to the tune of "Mrs. Robinson."
This poem (including the nonexclusive reprint rights) is presented to i_id as a gift from janetmiles as part of the 2009 Holiday Poetry Sale. Happy holidays! Have fun singing this with the rest of the crew.
( Sail ho! )
- Mood:
happy
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Tweaks and enhancements
- As a number of you reported, a service interruption impaired sending and receiving notifications for a couple of days. This was due to an avalanche of snowflake cookies. We've removed the free snowflake cookie and unclogged the pipeline. Timely notifications should resume shortly. Please note that there's a backlog in our queues, so you'll be getting earlier notifications first. For more details, check out this post at
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lj_maintenance. - In anticipation of the new year, we've embarked on a self-improvement kick to boost our backend (pun semi-intended). This will allow us to offer you a holiday promotion in the next few weeks (yes, we're listening and working very hard to make it happen). We sincerely appreciate your continued patience and support.
Holiday vgifts are here!
We've added some fantastic new vgifts to help you spread holiday cheer. We also hope you'll honor AIDS Awareness Month by purchasing virtual red ribbons. Priced at $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to support the development and global distribution of an affordable HIV vaccine.
Introducing: LJLimericks
We cordially here do invite youTo craft a fine limerick. Might you?
Each week, a new theme,
Then a poll, that's our dream
Winner posted on news to delight you!
In honor of all the brilliant writers on LiveJournal, we've created a brand new community: ljlimericks! Each week, we'll enter a handful of limericks into a poll (which we'll tuck snugly under an LJ-Cut). The winning poem will be published in the following newsletter. In addition, the author will receive a virtual blue ribbon! If you have the time, come drop us a rhyme. Please keep the "Nantucket" stuff on the downlow, since this is a youth-friendly community. Our first prompt is: Insomnia in winter.
Photos of the week
We're back with more incredible images from our global photography community. Congratulations to sempre_marseeya, who has been awarded a virtual blue ribbon as the winner of our second lj_photophile poll.
Curtains
Thanks, again, for joining us. Stay warm and safe out there!
I think we need to cleanse the palate a little on this blog. There has been far too much angst, so relax and listen. Gin and tonics will shortly be served at the bar. And for any new readers who’ve popped along recently, feel free to say hello.
Share: 
'A writer and nothing else: a man alone in a room with the English language, trying to get human feelings right'. ~John K. Hutchens
We all know what is wrong with the above, but the principle remains true. Did you get any human (or non-human) feelings right today?
Sound Off!
We all know what is wrong with the above, but the principle remains true. Did you get any human (or non-human) feelings right today?
Sound Off!
A Q&A with jfboyd, featuring jfboyd on the question dais.
Q: So, OK, Jim--I gotta ask you, I gotta ask you--what's up with you and Pearlswine? You've been gone for a while--what gives?
A: Well, I'll tell you, it's been a mixture of continuing problems with my laptop connectivity, and then switching ISPs, plus a little personal stuff thrown into the mix, yadda yadda yadda. Totally sucks, you know what I'm saying? We just had a blizzard, and I was offline through the whole damn thing. Felt like I was living in a cave.
Q: OK, OK, enough excuses--you have Internet at work, why didn't you post there?
A: That was my original plan, for sure. But, damn, you know what? When I'm at work, I'm at work--makes it kind of hard to break out to do anything personal. Plus, of course, to my bosses--I *never* use the Internet for personal time. :P
Q: That's weak sauce, Jim. You should always do personal stuff before work.
A: I know it, I know it, but there it is. I wasn't expecting to be offline for so long. I'm still waiting for my new ISP to hook me up. They're local, so there's that, though.
Q: All right, so what you gonna do for the legions of pearlswine fans out there. They're mad as hell, and they're not gonna take it anymore.
A: Hey, yes, I hear that, definitely. I'll tell you what--major apologies to all my pearlswine readers. As Big Bill says, "I feel your pain." Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to take another five days for hiatus--get myself hooked back up, get everything going again. In the meantime, I'm looking for anybody who would like to be a co-Mod with me. That way, if I run into technical difficulties like this again, or take a vacation, whatever, I can have someone to get in touch with to keep the flow uninterrupted.
Q: So what should people do if they're interested in being a co-Mod?
A: Easy, easy. Just shoot me an e-mail at vendaz@hotmail.com, give me some details about your availability so that I know I can contact you in a pinch, and I will set you up. With my personal thanks for the help! Just please be sure that you can be available when I need you! I'll probably pick at least two people for co-Mods to help me out when I need it.
Q: Cool, cool. Anything else you want to say to the legions of pearlswine readers out there?
A: Yeah, definitely--thanks for all your support and understanding. I'm sorry I've been away so long, and pledge to do better, with a little extra help. Keep it real, peeps, and don't do drugs!
jfboyd, featuring jfboyd on the question dais. Q: So, OK, Jim--I gotta ask you, I gotta ask you--what's up with you and Pearlswine? You've been gone for a while--what gives?
A: Well, I'll tell you, it's been a mixture of continuing problems with my laptop connectivity, and then switching ISPs, plus a little personal stuff thrown into the mix, yadda yadda yadda. Totally sucks, you know what I'm saying? We just had a blizzard, and I was offline through the whole damn thing. Felt like I was living in a cave.
Q: OK, OK, enough excuses--you have Internet at work, why didn't you post there?
A: That was my original plan, for sure. But, damn, you know what? When I'm at work, I'm at work--makes it kind of hard to break out to do anything personal. Plus, of course, to my bosses--I *never* use the Internet for personal time. :P
Q: That's weak sauce, Jim. You should always do personal stuff before work.
A: I know it, I know it, but there it is. I wasn't expecting to be offline for so long. I'm still waiting for my new ISP to hook me up. They're local, so there's that, though.
Q: All right, so what you gonna do for the legions of pearlswine fans out there. They're mad as hell, and they're not gonna take it anymore.
A: Hey, yes, I hear that, definitely. I'll tell you what--major apologies to all my pearlswine readers. As Big Bill says, "I feel your pain." Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to take another five days for hiatus--get myself hooked back up, get everything going again. In the meantime, I'm looking for anybody who would like to be a co-Mod with me. That way, if I run into technical difficulties like this again, or take a vacation, whatever, I can have someone to get in touch with to keep the flow uninterrupted.
Q: So what should people do if they're interested in being a co-Mod?
A: Easy, easy. Just shoot me an e-mail at vendaz@hotmail.com, give me some details about your availability so that I know I can contact you in a pinch, and I will set you up. With my personal thanks for the help! Just please be sure that you can be available when I need you! I'll probably pick at least two people for co-Mods to help me out when I need it.
Q: Cool, cool. Anything else you want to say to the legions of pearlswine readers out there?
A: Yeah, definitely--thanks for all your support and understanding. I'm sorry I've been away so long, and pledge to do better, with a little extra help. Keep it real, peeps, and don't do drugs!
It's Thursday, the storm has passed and the sun is out (and presumably the nefarious Cthuloid ocean foam which crept over the island roads last night has gone back to its foul undersea lair) and my soul quakes in anticipation of going to Augusta tomorrow. babymonkey and I attended our first island knitting group (I taught babymonkey to knit! Am not teachingfail! And I take part in the grand circle, teaching as I was taught, and feel fuzzy and connected) in a gorgeous mansion by the sea, and happily knit by her side while re-watching the first Harry Potter flick, which always puts me in mind of Christmas.
mishamish has winterized our windows with plastic sheeting--something I clearly did not have anything like the patience to do last year. I aimed the hair dryer at the plastic for two minutes and then yelled: THIS IS NOT WORKING and we had blousy plastic on one window all winter. You see, while I was born in Seattle and lived there til I was 13, my main upgrowing and expectation-building were done in California. I am, as I never wanted to be, inescapably, inevitably, a California girl. Therefore, I do not understand this Preparing for Winter, this Must Wear Socks At All Times, this Huddling for Warmth. I have learned to survive it, even embrace it, and I love the snow and ice, but part of my brain will never understand why we have to put plastic sheeting on the windows and draft blockers by the doors.
Butmishamish is better than that, and the whole downstairs is done and much warmer. We might actually make it through the winter--if my decision to not drop $400 on a generator yesterday does not prove to be ill-founded and hilarious.
We ventured into town in search of non-wool yarn for her and gift-making yarn for me, and are now ensconced at Bard Coffee, waiting forjustbeast to get in from Augusta. I am doing very well with Christmas shopping, and will finish up tonight, most likely. I am wearing my Ashland, Oregon shirt got on the Palimpsest tour (which, by way of update, I finally have the art auction items back from Seattle and will be getting them out to buyers soon, also am about 3/4 done with the Palimpsest Blanket of Endless Tiny Bits of Love and Yarn.)
Christmas, despite my not being Christian, is a dreaming time for me. The close of the year and all the hopes and wants and dreams of childhood in one sweet, cold month. Peppermint and chocolate and pine. I love giving gifts. I love the tree. I love Julie Andrews singing carols. I love cider and laughing and curling up.
What are you dreaming of?
babymonkey and I attended our first island knitting group (I taught babymonkey to knit! Am not teachingfail! And I take part in the grand circle, teaching as I was taught, and feel fuzzy and connected) in a gorgeous mansion by the sea, and happily knit by her side while re-watching the first Harry Potter flick, which always puts me in mind of Christmas. mishamish has winterized our windows with plastic sheeting--something I clearly did not have anything like the patience to do last year. I aimed the hair dryer at the plastic for two minutes and then yelled: THIS IS NOT WORKING and we had blousy plastic on one window all winter. You see, while I was born in Seattle and lived there til I was 13, my main upgrowing and expectation-building were done in California. I am, as I never wanted to be, inescapably, inevitably, a California girl. Therefore, I do not understand this Preparing for Winter, this Must Wear Socks At All Times, this Huddling for Warmth. I have learned to survive it, even embrace it, and I love the snow and ice, but part of my brain will never understand why we have to put plastic sheeting on the windows and draft blockers by the doors.But
mishamish is better than that, and the whole downstairs is done and much warmer. We might actually make it through the winter--if my decision to not drop $400 on a generator yesterday does not prove to be ill-founded and hilarious. We ventured into town in search of non-wool yarn for her and gift-making yarn for me, and are now ensconced at Bard Coffee, waiting for
justbeast to get in from Augusta. I am doing very well with Christmas shopping, and will finish up tonight, most likely. I am wearing my Ashland, Oregon shirt got on the Palimpsest tour (which, by way of update, I finally have the art auction items back from Seattle and will be getting them out to buyers soon, also am about 3/4 done with the Palimpsest Blanket of Endless Tiny Bits of Love and Yarn.)Christmas, despite my not being Christian, is a dreaming time for me. The close of the year and all the hopes and wants and dreams of childhood in one sweet, cold month. Peppermint and chocolate and pine. I love giving gifts. I love the tree. I love Julie Andrews singing carols. I love cider and laughing and curling up.
What are you dreaming of?
- Mood:
cold
Okay! I've taken pictures! I probably won't manage to do this every time someone sends me something, but I'd really LIKE to, and I'm overcompensating today...
I got this incredible, hand-dyed purse in the mail yesterday, fromnocturnalpurple , whom many of you probably know from her posts here. You can see her DeviantArt page here: http://unokitsune.deviantart.com/
It's lovely and big, and I have already taken it out for a test-run. (Last night was the kindergarten concert.) It has a window where I can add the latest artwork to show off (she included some of her own with the purse!) and big pockets for phone, etc. It's not only hand-dyed, but all hand-sewn, and from her own design.
Here, without further ado, is Monsieur Thrifty, helping me out by modeling the purse:
M. Thrifty and I don't take the greatest pictures on the fly, but we do our best. Thank you again for the bag!
I got this incredible, hand-dyed purse in the mail yesterday, from
nocturnalpurple , whom many of you probably know from her posts here. You can see her DeviantArt page here: http://unokitsune.deviantart.com/It's lovely and big, and I have already taken it out for a test-run. (Last night was the kindergarten concert.) It has a window where I can add the latest artwork to show off (she included some of her own with the purse!) and big pockets for phone, etc. It's not only hand-dyed, but all hand-sewn, and from her own design.
Here, without further ado, is Monsieur Thrifty, helping me out by modeling the purse:
M. Thrifty and I don't take the greatest pictures on the fly, but we do our best. Thank you again for the bag!
- Mood:
pleased
I am a total comic geek, and I'm not ashamed. I'm also a Marvel girl, and—as seems to be increasingly unusual in some circles—I'm a superhero fan. I like my flying men in tights and my women in impractical shoes. No matter how insane the storylines become, at the end of the day, it's pretty easy to make me happy.
We start, of course, with comics. For the X-geek in your life, or for the geek who just wants people to understand your love of all things X-Man, the Grant Morrison run on New X-Men is a fantastic place to start. It has enough backstory to "fill in the gaps" for people just joining, while being an incredible, world-spanning story that it's hard as heck not to love. The Grant Morrison run has been collected into three massive volumes. New X-Men: Collection I [Amazon] kicks things off with the bombing of Genosha, the world's only all-mutant country. New X-Men: Collection II [Amazon] ups the ante in a dozen different ways, and New X-Men: Collection III [Amazon] brings things to a screaming, ass-kicking conclusion. I highly recommend these books, and not just because Emma Frost features heavily.
If you're looking for something a little outside the mainstream of the superhero world, Robert Kirkman's Invincible is an amazing title from Image, one that dares to show superheroes as a little more human than most publishers will dare. It's a painful, beautiful story, and since it's relatively new (IE, "this century"), catching up isn't all that hard. Invincible: The Ultimate Collection, Volume I [Amazon] is a big, beautifully sturdy hardback introduction to Mark Grayson and his world. If that's a bit too big for your budget, Invincible book one: Family Matters [Amazon] and Invincible book two: Eight Is Enough [Amazon] include the first issues of the series, and are more than awesome enough to get you hooked.
My current favorite superhero title is a lot darker. Garth Ennis—the man who brought us Preacher, which really tells you something about how dark we're talking here—has turned his attention the superhero world, and the resulting title is...disturbing, to say the least. Start with The Boys, volume one: The Name of the Game [Amazon]. Proceed from there to The Boys volume two: Get Some [Amazon]. With fantastic art, a gritty storyline, and an all-too-plausible superhero community, The Boys is a great antidote to all that four-color brightness. (If you need still more dark-but-awesome superheroics, look up Incognito [Amazon] and Wanted [Amazon], which really has nothing to do with the movie. But don't say I didn't warn you about the dark.)
Important note: All of the above are graphic novels, and can be obtained from your local comic book store. The Amazon links are for reference, and for people who don't have a local comic book store. Buy local. It's awesome.
Soon I Will Be Invincible [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] by Austin Grossman is a brilliant piece of superhero fiction that looks at the heroic and the villainous at the same time. I can't recommend it highly enough. I also can't say much about it without spoiling the surprise. Check it out, it's awesome.
If you enjoy the "Velveteen vs." series, you absolutely have to take a look at Black and White [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge. This is the start of a bad-ass series about a world where superheroes are under corporate control, and stepping outside the lines costs you more than you could possibly imagine. It's an awesome treatment of a superhero world, and the contrast between good and evil has never been more blurred.
Sometimes you want your superheroes to be fluffy and fun, and those are the times when you should reach for the Bigtime books by Jennifer Estep. Karma Girl [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy], Hot Mama [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy], and Jinx [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] are superhero romance cotton candy with a sharply sweet bite, like cocktails that look completely innocent until they knock you on your ass. They're more fun than a barrel of radioactive monkeys, and I hugely recommend them.
I've tried to avoid movies in today's gift suggestions, but I can't resist slipping one in here: Krrish [Amazon]. It's sort of the Bollywood answer to the big-budget Hollywood superhero movie, with a dash of Tarzan and several large dance numbers. It's incredibly fun, and incredibly weird, and really, really worthwhile. For seriously.
Got any heroes or villains to recommend? Tell me about it!
We start, of course, with comics. For the X-geek in your life, or for the geek who just wants people to understand your love of all things X-Man, the Grant Morrison run on New X-Men is a fantastic place to start. It has enough backstory to "fill in the gaps" for people just joining, while being an incredible, world-spanning story that it's hard as heck not to love. The Grant Morrison run has been collected into three massive volumes. New X-Men: Collection I [Amazon] kicks things off with the bombing of Genosha, the world's only all-mutant country. New X-Men: Collection II [Amazon] ups the ante in a dozen different ways, and New X-Men: Collection III [Amazon] brings things to a screaming, ass-kicking conclusion. I highly recommend these books, and not just because Emma Frost features heavily.
If you're looking for something a little outside the mainstream of the superhero world, Robert Kirkman's Invincible is an amazing title from Image, one that dares to show superheroes as a little more human than most publishers will dare. It's a painful, beautiful story, and since it's relatively new (IE, "this century"), catching up isn't all that hard. Invincible: The Ultimate Collection, Volume I [Amazon] is a big, beautifully sturdy hardback introduction to Mark Grayson and his world. If that's a bit too big for your budget, Invincible book one: Family Matters [Amazon] and Invincible book two: Eight Is Enough [Amazon] include the first issues of the series, and are more than awesome enough to get you hooked.
My current favorite superhero title is a lot darker. Garth Ennis—the man who brought us Preacher, which really tells you something about how dark we're talking here—has turned his attention the superhero world, and the resulting title is...disturbing, to say the least. Start with The Boys, volume one: The Name of the Game [Amazon]. Proceed from there to The Boys volume two: Get Some [Amazon]. With fantastic art, a gritty storyline, and an all-too-plausible superhero community, The Boys is a great antidote to all that four-color brightness. (If you need still more dark-but-awesome superheroics, look up Incognito [Amazon] and Wanted [Amazon], which really has nothing to do with the movie. But don't say I didn't warn you about the dark.)
Important note: All of the above are graphic novels, and can be obtained from your local comic book store. The Amazon links are for reference, and for people who don't have a local comic book store. Buy local. It's awesome.
Soon I Will Be Invincible [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] by Austin Grossman is a brilliant piece of superhero fiction that looks at the heroic and the villainous at the same time. I can't recommend it highly enough. I also can't say much about it without spoiling the surprise. Check it out, it's awesome.
If you enjoy the "Velveteen vs." series, you absolutely have to take a look at Black and White [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge. This is the start of a bad-ass series about a world where superheroes are under corporate control, and stepping outside the lines costs you more than you could possibly imagine. It's an awesome treatment of a superhero world, and the contrast between good and evil has never been more blurred.
Sometimes you want your superheroes to be fluffy and fun, and those are the times when you should reach for the Bigtime books by Jennifer Estep. Karma Girl [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy], Hot Mama [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy], and Jinx [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] are superhero romance cotton candy with a sharply sweet bite, like cocktails that look completely innocent until they knock you on your ass. They're more fun than a barrel of radioactive monkeys, and I hugely recommend them.
I've tried to avoid movies in today's gift suggestions, but I can't resist slipping one in here: Krrish [Amazon]. It's sort of the Bollywood answer to the big-budget Hollywood superhero movie, with a dash of Tarzan and several large dance numbers. It's incredibly fun, and incredibly weird, and really, really worthwhile. For seriously.
Got any heroes or villains to recommend? Tell me about it!
- Mood:
geeky - Music:Ookla the Mok, "Stop Talking About Comic Books Or I'll Kill You."
doorwindowwallA stunning collection of images sure to delight anyone with a penchant for architectural elements, this talented community, largely from New York, is hoping to attract new members from around the world. Featuring an eclectic variety of photos depicting doors, windows, and walls, there's an interesting balance of interior and exterior shots, many from urban streets, some from ramshackle rural farmhouses. Wonderful!
I have started this story four times. And four times I have stopped after the first paragraph in frustration. I am staring at these false starts when Thirukedi says, "You will not find a solution to your problem."
I stand up reflexively even though I'm not sure if that's the right response: do I bow to this emperor? Kneel? Stand? I settle for offering him a chair, but he prefers to stand, looking out the window.
"The story?" I ask, when I find my tongue, guessing that I'm allowed to ask since he started the conversation.
He nods. "You wish to speak of the Demure and yet you cannot find his voice."
"Yes," I say, returning to my frustrations. "When I start the story in third person, it falls flat immediately; all these stories without humans in them want to be told in first-person, and you Ai-Naidar in particular like to speak directly to us. But when I start the story in first-person I can't seem to get him to talk, or he talks and doesn't sound like himself. It's almost like he doesn't think of himself as an "I" even in his own head...!"
"That would be because he does not," the Emperor says. Kindly, I think. "Like many of the best Decorations, he is so accustomed to the Abased form of speech that he thinks in it."
"I've translated Abased before," I protest, but uneasily, because I've never been happy with how. "I've used the passive tense: 'an offense was committed by me.' That sort of works. Better than 'this one committed an offense,' anyway."
"But those are poor renditions," the Emperor says. "The true Abased grammar allows the speaker to subordinate the self to the universe. There is no "I" except that implied by it being spoken, or thought. And when you attempt that in your own tongue, you write nonsense, or non-story, because you do not conceive of story without actors, and actors without agency. The Decoration allows life to happen to him. He observes. But he is a part of it all the same."
"So he has no agency."
"Not that you would perceive," the Emperor says. "He has desires, dreams and goals. But he would never speak of them. He attempts to embody them and then the universe responds."
"Or doesn't," I say.
"Or doesn't."
"That's not much of a story," I say.
"And yet, things happen to the Demure in the story," the Emperor says. "He responds to them. He changes."
"But I can't talk about those changes if he isn't present in his own head!"
"It would be very difficult given your language and your narrative traditions," the Emperor agrees.
I throw up my hands. "So how do I tell the story?"
"In English?" He smiles. "You allow someone else to narrate. Like me."
I pause, taken aback. "I... am not sure I can do your voice justice, Thirukedi."
"Then you cannot tell this story," he says, and smiles at me before he leaves...
...knowing very well that I can't let a challenge like that lie. I look at my notes. I really want to tell this story from the Demure's viewpoint, because I want to bring the sense of calm and oneness in his head to the people reading it. But I really, truly can't figure out how to do it, without resorting to something truly bizarre, like writing it as a set of haiku. Going at it from someone else's voice seems like the easy way out. Even if it might be the only way out. And I certainly could do worse than someone as exalted as the Emperor himself as the voice...!
Three scenes. This story is three bloody scenes and I've been stopped up on it for almost a year. *sigh* The more I write this culture, the less capable I feel of writing this culture.
Stardancer Home.
I stand up reflexively even though I'm not sure if that's the right response: do I bow to this emperor? Kneel? Stand? I settle for offering him a chair, but he prefers to stand, looking out the window.
"The story?" I ask, when I find my tongue, guessing that I'm allowed to ask since he started the conversation.
He nods. "You wish to speak of the Demure and yet you cannot find his voice."
"Yes," I say, returning to my frustrations. "When I start the story in third person, it falls flat immediately; all these stories without humans in them want to be told in first-person, and you Ai-Naidar in particular like to speak directly to us. But when I start the story in first-person I can't seem to get him to talk, or he talks and doesn't sound like himself. It's almost like he doesn't think of himself as an "I" even in his own head...!"
"That would be because he does not," the Emperor says. Kindly, I think. "Like many of the best Decorations, he is so accustomed to the Abased form of speech that he thinks in it."
"I've translated Abased before," I protest, but uneasily, because I've never been happy with how. "I've used the passive tense: 'an offense was committed by me.' That sort of works. Better than 'this one committed an offense,' anyway."
"But those are poor renditions," the Emperor says. "The true Abased grammar allows the speaker to subordinate the self to the universe. There is no "I" except that implied by it being spoken, or thought. And when you attempt that in your own tongue, you write nonsense, or non-story, because you do not conceive of story without actors, and actors without agency. The Decoration allows life to happen to him. He observes. But he is a part of it all the same."
"So he has no agency."
"Not that you would perceive," the Emperor says. "He has desires, dreams and goals. But he would never speak of them. He attempts to embody them and then the universe responds."
"Or doesn't," I say.
"Or doesn't."
"That's not much of a story," I say.
"And yet, things happen to the Demure in the story," the Emperor says. "He responds to them. He changes."
"But I can't talk about those changes if he isn't present in his own head!"
"It would be very difficult given your language and your narrative traditions," the Emperor agrees.
I throw up my hands. "So how do I tell the story?"
"In English?" He smiles. "You allow someone else to narrate. Like me."
I pause, taken aback. "I... am not sure I can do your voice justice, Thirukedi."
"Then you cannot tell this story," he says, and smiles at me before he leaves...
...knowing very well that I can't let a challenge like that lie. I look at my notes. I really want to tell this story from the Demure's viewpoint, because I want to bring the sense of calm and oneness in his head to the people reading it. But I really, truly can't figure out how to do it, without resorting to something truly bizarre, like writing it as a set of haiku. Going at it from someone else's voice seems like the easy way out. Even if it might be the only way out. And I certainly could do worse than someone as exalted as the Emperor himself as the voice...!
Three scenes. This story is three bloody scenes and I've been stopped up on it for almost a year. *sigh* The more I write this culture, the less capable I feel of writing this culture.
Stardancer Home.
- Mood:puzzled/frustrated
So I caused a bit of a stir. My editor called me enfant terrible, though only because I’m disappointed no one has said it yet! But to those of you who think I’m just some upstart only trying to hurt Science Fiction for publicity – well, if, according to my stats, a few thousand people are now talking or thinking about Science Fiction books in more detail, then that’s not bad at all, right? Right. Maybe you went away and spread the discussion further. Maybe you went out an bought some more SF novels – because hey, publishing is a business, and needs your hard cash to survive.
Did you think it was a useful debate?
No one has really said anything significant to sway me from my original thoughts, but here’s a a round-up of what some folk have saying. I’ll not comment any further, but send you over to their online districts.
I couldn’t help but wonder how many similar articles came out at the time, some decades ago, when the shelves were seemingly wholly populated by horror books with generic black covers. So often I’ve heard the claim that science fiction is dying, or dead but, every time, an attempt to nail down the coffin lid fails.
Science Fiction is not dying! Fantasy Fiction is not the future! And I can prove the fallacious error of Mark’s thesis with two compelling arguments. Firstly, I don’t want this to be the case. Secondly…. Actually there is no secondly. I don’t want this to be the case – but Mark is quite right. SF sales are diminishing – not by much, but they’re certainly not growing. And fantasy sales are booming. And hence, the genre I love so much is shrinking, and becoming less ‘cool’. Damn, I appear to have punched myself on my own jaw, and am now reeling and blinking.
I personally love Fantasy, and tend to read more of it than hard Sci Fi so this read pretty true to me. I think that in some circles of Sci Fi purists my blog would be really more about Fantasy and Hollywood versions of Sci Fi action than about Hard Sci Fi writing. I just write about what interests me and the other fans in my life. I don’t really bother worrying about labels – if I like it I like it. However, labels are pretty key in terms of where in the bookstore items are displayed, what kind of cover art is employed, and what the chances are that any given person is going to pick up that book to flip through. From a marketing perspective its pretty powerful stuff. And well worth reading about and considering.
Surely there is no finer sport than ramming sharpened stakes into the cages of the SF community!
And yet, there *is* an SF community, with reasonably definable boundaries and consumption patterns. In its natural habitat, the SF reader will graze easily across hard SF, space opera, military SF, literary SF, wherever both science and fiction combine.
There is no fantasy community, and this, I think, is where your initial premise breaks down, Mark.
But if we’re looking at sales (which Mark says is the way to look at it, it being a business and all) and publishing schedules and space on those bookshop shelves, then I am inclined to agree with him, at least on my experience in the UK. Adding to that the point that magazine subscriptions are declining, and that the Sf crowd (for books) generally are aging, then (reluctantly) I can see Mark’s point.
I think that Morgan is right in blaming a zeitgeist shift but wrong in picking the one he does: lots of old timey SF reads like it was written for not particularly bright teens with very basic tastes in fiction and anger management problems (specifically, the kind that lead one to fly into a rage when presented with fiction that requires any kind of effort from the reader). I think there are two (related) problems: the future people used to imagine 50 years ago was wrong and the ones people, particularly Americans, can conceive of today are not ones readers find particularly interesting to spend a few hours in. We can tell this is true because readers are in general not choosing to spend a few hours in those futures.
Outward appearances would suggest that Mr. Newton is correct. Fantasy is the future, and SF is in a dieback. I do think that we are in a cycle where fantasy (especially urban fantasy is ascendant. I am not convinced that this is a permanent state of affairs. In addition, I think there will always be a market for science fiction, a significant market. Granted, the types of SF may change, just as fantasy has shifted significantly toward urban fantasy, but I suspect that authors like Stross, Bear, and many others will have sufficient readers to keep the fire alive.
Fantasy author Mark Charan Newton has some ideas about why sales for sf is flagging while fantasy is still going strong. He comes across as the extra who had to nod and duck out of frame when Claude Rains said “Round up the usual suspects.” We have literary types and Hollywood and “We’re living in the future!” and, er, women. (Because “Women matter” which I guess is supposed to suggest that women as a group read very little science fiction, or that sf doesn’t appeal to women. Or something. The author doesn’t make it entirely clear, stating that sf readership is falling and citing “More women than men read books” as a reason, leaving the reader to draw the conclusion. I know there are many, many women who read sf, but I wonder whether the percentages match the percentage of the reading public as a whole.)
These days, I suspect it’s wrong to even call sf a genre. It’s more of a culture set. Its styles and tropes, anything which might readily identify it, have been picked up by other genres, have been spun out to create yet other genres, have become in many respects a significant part of our cultural landscape.
The first point to make is that SF has never done as well sales-wise as the other subgenres of speculative fiction, namely fantasy and horror, certainly not since the rise of those two fields as distinctive sales categories in the 1970s. Dune is the biggest-selling single SF novel of all time, selling 10 million copies since its publication in 1965. Lord of the Rings, which didn’t hit the bestseller lists until around the same time, has outsold it by something like twenty times. The number of SF writers capable of hitting the bestseller lists, even in the ‘good old days’, has always been vanishingly small, and vastly outnumbered by those in fantasy and horror. This has not changed at all. This is of course related to the other point: since the emergency of fantasy and horror as separate fields, the number of authors in those fields and the number of books they write has almost always outstripped those of SF massively. In any given year the number of SF titles published will be a fraction of fantasy and horror, particularly urban fantasy at this time.
Now let me start by saying that I agree with Mark, except that I don’t think the disease that is afflicting printed SciFi is terminal. Seasons change, and so do the markets for any product. I am a firm believer that science fiction will reinvent itself in some way and rebound. I don’t see any product that can fully replace it for its cult following. One of the things that such a recovery will require however will be for those who write and promote it to understand the causes of the current slump.
I pin it on something much simpler…the Michael Jordan effect.
That is the effect that one or a handful of ’superstar’ figures can have on a cultural activity. Jordan’s superstar status pulled the whole sport into mass popularity. You get the same effect in all kinds of areas. Maybe the best example in fiction is J K Rowling, who pulled the entire YA section from minow to giant in the publishing industry.
Also, the most recent prediction that SF is dying comes from Mark Charan Newton. Hasn’t SF been dying (because of women’s predominance in the book-buying marketplace/accelerating technological change/the rise of fantasy/the usurpation of central SF tropes by literary writers/whatever else) for decades now? Like, since the 50s? I remember once having a conversation with a professor of mine at the University of Denver. I mentioned doing some writing about SF and he said, “Huh. Science fiction. Is that still a going thing?” Not in a dismissive way–we talked afterward about some SF that he liked–but in the way of someone convinced that SF had once been interesting and now wasn’t any more.
There are likely more I’ve missed, but these were the first ones I came to.
Share:
corposant: (n) The ball of light which is sometimes seen on a ship (especially about the masts or yard-arms) during a storm; also called ‘St. Elmo's Fire’.
jicama: (n) The white, fleshy tuberous root of the yam bean as a vegetable that is eaten raw or cooked, especially in salads. Also, the plant itself, a tropical leguminous vine, Pachyrhizus erosus, cultivated especially in Central America.
mofongo: (n) A Puerto Rican dish generally made with fried plantains or, less commonly, yuca and breadfruit.
jimsonweed: (n) The Thorn-apple, Datura Stramonium.
salmagundi: (n) A dish composed of chopped meat, anchovies, eggs, onions with oil and condiments.
scalvagee: (n) That which is scalvaged.
dunderfunk: (n) Nautical: ship's biscuit broken up, mixed with molasses etc. and baked.
carious: (adj) 1. In Pathology: Of bones, teeth, etc.: Affected with caries, decayed.
2. Decayed; rotten with dry rot.
epicone: (n) In Zoology: The part anterior to the equatorial groove in a dinoflagellate.
brane: (n) In Physics: An extended object with any given number of dimensions, of which strings in string theory are examples with one dimension. Also with prefixed numbers, or symbols representing numbers, as 2-brane, p-brane.
mentholatum: (n) A proprietary name for: any of various menthol-containing preparations used to relieve the symptoms of colds and for other purposes.
quinquagenarian: (n) 1. A soldier or leader who commands fifty men.
2. A person aged between fifty and fifty-nine years (inclusive).
aniline: (n) A chemical base important in the arts as the source of many beautiful dyes; obtained originally by distilling indigo with caustic potash, but subsequently from many other sources, especially coal-tar.
jicama: (n) The white, fleshy tuberous root of the yam bean as a vegetable that is eaten raw or cooked, especially in salads. Also, the plant itself, a tropical leguminous vine, Pachyrhizus erosus, cultivated especially in Central America.
mofongo: (n) A Puerto Rican dish generally made with fried plantains or, less commonly, yuca and breadfruit.
jimsonweed: (n) The Thorn-apple, Datura Stramonium.
salmagundi: (n) A dish composed of chopped meat, anchovies, eggs, onions with oil and condiments.
scalvagee: (n) That which is scalvaged.
dunderfunk: (n) Nautical: ship's biscuit broken up, mixed with molasses etc. and baked.
carious: (adj) 1. In Pathology: Of bones, teeth, etc.: Affected with caries, decayed.
2. Decayed; rotten with dry rot.
epicone: (n) In Zoology: The part anterior to the equatorial groove in a dinoflagellate.
brane: (n) In Physics: An extended object with any given number of dimensions, of which strings in string theory are examples with one dimension. Also with prefixed numbers, or symbols representing numbers, as 2-brane, p-brane.
mentholatum: (n) A proprietary name for: any of various menthol-containing preparations used to relieve the symptoms of colds and for other purposes.
quinquagenarian: (n) 1. A soldier or leader who commands fifty men.
2. A person aged between fifty and fifty-nine years (inclusive).
aniline: (n) A chemical base important in the arts as the source of many beautiful dyes; obtained originally by distilling indigo with caustic potash, but subsequently from many other sources, especially coal-tar.
2,000 words today, 30,200 total. Wiktory!
Now to goof off until archery time. I will probably not be shooting tonight, as my eyesight is blurry (allergies or another, milder bout of that virus that laid me out all damned summer).
30200 / 100000 words. 30% done!
153 / 400 pages. 38% done!
I wonder if these characters are ever going to actually DO anything? Or if they just plan to stand around and chatter for 400 pages....\
Mean things: somebody has a crush. somebody is being mysterious.
Now to goof off until archery time. I will probably not be shooting tonight, as my eyesight is blurry (allergies or another, milder bout of that virus that laid me out all damned summer).
I wonder if these characters are ever going to actually DO anything? Or if they just plan to stand around and chatter for 400 pages....\
Mean things: somebody has a crush. somebody is being mysterious.
- Mood:
i wish i had a little whisky and a gun my dear - Music:Gillian Welch - My Morphine
So... people send me presents. This befuddles and thrills me. And I don't deserve them at all, because I am the absolute WORST (wurst? mmmm...wurst. ) at sending thank-you notes. And the reason I'm bad at taking the five minutes it might take to write a thank-you note? Oh, get this. I just worked it out myself. I procrastinate with them, because I'm so terrified of getting it "wrong." I am usually so bowled over by whatever it is I want to say "Thank you" for, that I have no idea how to express my true feelings properly. (Gosh, I'm such a sensitive little snowflake!) So I usually go and get it über-wrong by freezing up and not doing anything. Well. THAT'S productive, no?
No.
So, I'm going to turn over a new leaf! Yes! (Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...) I'm going to do my thank-you's right away, even if I don't do them right.
And to all of you that I have frozen up on in the past? I am sorry! I love the stuff people send me. It's just that...well, I'm kind of terrified of the World. I'm working on that.
No.
So, I'm going to turn over a new leaf! Yes! (Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...) I'm going to do my thank-you's right away, even if I don't do them right.
And to all of you that I have frozen up on in the past? I am sorry! I love the stuff people send me. It's just that...well, I'm kind of terrified of the World. I'm working on that.
- Mood:
embarrassed/amused
So far, I've made a little money and generated a lot of smiles with the 2009 Holiday Poetry Sale. Both of the ongoing epics have been fully funded, and some whole poems have been published. You can read them here:
"Choralia"
"The Secret of Gobekli Tepe"
"Skydiving Through Time"
"The Sword from the Foundling House"
"Warning Sine"
This sale runs through Sunday, December 13 and all the leftover fishbowl poems from 2009 are half price. This is your best chance to buy an epic if you couldn't afford one at full price. Also, keep an eye on the list because I'm editing it to cross off poems that have already been funded. If you're buying a poem as a gift for someone, please make sure you tell me who it is for so I can put that in the notes above the poem. Thus far, recipients of poetic gifts have been delighted. Happy holidays!
"Choralia"
"The Secret of Gobekli Tepe"
"Skydiving Through Time"
"The Sword from the Foundling House"
"Warning Sine"
This sale runs through Sunday, December 13 and all the leftover fishbowl poems from 2009 are half price. This is your best chance to buy an epic if you couldn't afford one at full price. Also, keep an eye on the list because I'm editing it to cross off poems that have already been funded. If you're buying a poem as a gift for someone, please make sure you tell me who it is for so I can put that in the notes above the poem. Thus far, recipients of poetic gifts have been delighted. Happy holidays!
- Mood: busy
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
Lately I've been getting a lot of questions from writers who've been solicited by Hudson Audio Publishing (which appears to be engaging in a major spam campaign).
Per Hudson's website,
Hudson Audio Publishing is a boutique service company that specializes in assisting:
- Self published authors
- Unpublished authors
- Seminar speakers
- Owners of quality audio material
to get their works converted into audio books and sold through the three largest audio book distribution platforms in the world - Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
How does it work? You can record your book yourself, using free or low-cost software, in which case there's no upfront fee due to Hudson (verbiage on the website suggests that this fee-freeness is temporary). Or you can pay Hudson to do it for you, using (they say) professional voice talent, which on average (they say) will cost between $1,500 and $2,500. Royalties aren't overly generous (if you grant Hudson a 5-year exclusive license, you get 20% of net; for a non-exclusive license for a similar term, you get 12% of net) but Hudson takes only digital download audio rights, leaving other rights free.
(This is a limited claim on rights, but it's still a claim. Despite that, and despite the fact that it calls itself Hudson Audio Publishing, Hudson alleges that it is not, in fact, a publisher.)
Basically, Hudson is self-publishing for audiobooks. I would imagine it carries about the same chances of success as print and electronic self-publishing (i.e., small sales and exposure for the average writer--depending, of course, on any individual writer's definition of "success"). Another consideration: people who buy audiobooks don't want to hear a bad reader droning on. They expect the books to be engagingly and expressively read. Can you do this yourself? Do you even want to? If you're pondering using Hudson's voice talent, however, there's a concern beyond the substantial expense: is the talent really professional? It would be a good idea to obtain a couple of Hudson's non-author-read audiobooks, just to make sure.
Something else to take into account: the audiobook market is small, a fact not noted by the hype-ish coverage on Hudson's website. According to the Audio Publishers Association, revenue reported by member companies in 2008 was $331 million, with total estimated revenue for the audiobook industry of close to $1 billion--around 4%, my calculator informs me, of $24.3 billion in total book sales for the same period. And just as audio books are a fraction of the book market, digital downloads are a fraction of audio sales: just 21%, according to the APA. Digital downloads increased their market share in 2008 (up from 17% in 2007), but APA members' total revenue slipped 6.7%.
If you are willing and able to read your book yourself, you probably don't have much to lose by using Hudson (though be aware that there are other free or low-cost options for turning your book into audio--Podiobooks.com, for instance). If you're considering paying for voice talent, however, do shop around--there are a number of companies that offer audio self-publishing for a fee, such as Spoken Books Publishing (a division of self-publishing service Infinity.com), or, if you're enterprising, you may be able to create your script, hire the voice talent, and book the studio yourself.
Most important: be sure to evaluate whether it's really worthwhile to spend a lot of money to launch yourself into such a limited market.
Lately I've been getting a lot of questions from writers who've been solicited by Hudson Audio Publishing (which appears to be engaging in a major spam campaign).
Per Hudson's website,
Hudson Audio Publishing is a boutique service company that specializes in assisting:
- Self published authors
- Unpublished authors
- Seminar speakers
- Owners of quality audio material
to get their works converted into audio books and sold through the three largest audio book distribution platforms in the world - Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
How does it work? You can record your book yourself, using free or low-cost software, in which case there's no upfront fee due to Hudson (verbiage on the website suggests that this fee-freeness is temporary). Or you can pay Hudson to do it for you, using (they say) professional voice talent, which on average (they say) will cost between $1,500 and $2,500. Royalties aren't overly generous (if you grant Hudson a 5-year exclusive license, you get 20% of net; for a non-exclusive license for a similar term, you get 12% of net) but Hudson takes only digital download audio rights, leaving other rights free.
(This is a limited claim on rights, but it's still a claim. Despite that, and despite the fact that it calls itself Hudson Audio Publishing, Hudson alleges that it is not, in fact, a publisher.)
Basically, Hudson is self-publishing for audiobooks. I would imagine it carries about the same chances of success as print and electronic self-publishing (i.e., small sales and exposure for the average writer--depending, of course, on any individual writer's definition of "success"). Another consideration: people who buy audiobooks don't want to hear a bad reader droning on. They expect the books to be engagingly and expressively read. Can you do this yourself? Do you even want to? If you're pondering using Hudson's voice talent, however, there's a concern beyond the substantial expense: is the talent really professional? It would be a good idea to obtain a couple of Hudson's non-author-read audiobooks, just to make sure.
Something else to take into account: the audiobook market is small, a fact not noted by the hype-ish coverage on Hudson's website. According to the Audio Publishers Association, revenue reported by member companies in 2008 was $331 million, with total estimated revenue for the audiobook industry of close to $1 billion--around 4%, my calculator informs me, of $24.3 billion in total book sales for the same period. And just as audio books are a fraction of the book market, digital downloads are a fraction of audio sales: just 21%, according to the APA. Digital downloads increased their market share in 2008 (up from 17% in 2007), but APA members' total revenue slipped 6.7%.
If you are willing and able to read your book yourself, you probably don't have much to lose by using Hudson (though be aware that there are other free or low-cost options for turning your book into audio--Podiobooks.com, for instance). If you're considering paying for voice talent, however, do shop around--there are a number of companies that offer audio self-publishing for a fee, such as Spoken Books Publishing (a division of self-publishing service Infinity.com), or, if you're enterprising, you may be able to create your script, hire the voice talent, and book the studio yourself.
Most important: be sure to evaluate whether it's really worthwhile to spend a lot of money to launch yourself into such a limited market.
She didn't play a dangerous game. Her sexuality was not immoral. She did not rob herself of her own childhood.
She did, however, kill herself.
Bullying kills. Sex negativity kills. Misogyny kills. Not the Internet (hell, sometimes the Internet can help you get justice). Not a teenager being a teenager. Not taking your clothes off. Not wanting approval. Not new technology.
I will say this over and over again. Bullying is not just a childhood phenomena (workplace bullying happens ALL THE TIME, and geez, we're all on the Internet, yeah?) nor is it one of those things kids just need to learn to deal with (I do agree our society is too protective of children, bullying is not a part of this in my mind), nor is it something the child who is targeted should be blamed for. Additionally, adults should not participate in bullying children. Should be obvious right? It wasn't obvious in my own childhood and apparently it's still not.
Hope Witsell was not a whore.
legionseagle raised some good points (by referencing the most logically off and poorly researched meta I think I've ever read -- but I skip a lot) with me in my last sundries post about the Infinitus proposal. I think it's something I'm still capable of doing, but not necessarily in the crunchy timeframe that paper is going to get because of the rest of the 2010 landscape. I'm trying to formulate some cogent thoughts on whether the HP universe is really about love as JKR and much of the text claims. I see a lot more duty than love. And while you can do your duty out of love, this disturbs me. Particularly, I am still stuck on -- will perhaps always be stuck on -- Kreacher talking about drinking the liquid in the cave. He is asked why he did not die. And he says it is because his master had asked (ordered) him to come back. It is, I believe, the single darkest, most horrifying moment in the whole series. And I want to talk about it.Infinitus really wants queer content because of the whole gay Dumbledore thing, but other than the Snape/female heroism paper I've given twice now, I've got nothing.
Argh!
reannon links us to an interesting article about whether the increase in Oscar nominees will get SF/F films out of the "technical ghetto." I hate that the number of nominees has been expanded, and I don't think it'll change much. Lots of SF/F stuff is just blowing up things in a brave new world, but lots of great films have been not recognized over the years, and I expect that to continue for a while yet. The geeks may have inherited the earth, but lots of people who have gotten the memo would like to take it back.A little while ago, I had a bit of spending money, and I wanted to spend it on something that would make me happy. I had books in mind. (Surprise, surprise.) But then I saw these in a booth at a mall.
I decided to buy them instead because they will sparkle and catch the light and make me happy whenever I see them. That will be many times a day, because we're going to install them in the upper corners of the big arch between the living room and dining room.
I think they look like dragonfly wings. Each individual piece of glass in the wing has its own unique texture, and they are all iridescent. Here is a closeup.
Now I just need to shuffle stuff on the floor so we can get under the right places to install these!
I decided to buy them instead because they will sparkle and catch the light and make me happy whenever I see them. That will be many times a day, because we're going to install them in the upper corners of the big arch between the living room and dining room.
I think they look like dragonfly wings. Each individual piece of glass in the wing has its own unique texture, and they are all iridescent. Here is a closeup.
Now I just need to shuffle stuff on the floor so we can get under the right places to install these!
- Mood: happy
Thinking about buying a lovely calendar? There's still time! Click here! Now with 33% more exclamation marks.
If you're more in the mood to just look at the pretty pictures, the flowers are here, the wool is here, and the men are here.
You know how you can tell if an animal is ill because it's fur loses its shine and looks flat? I both look and feel like that now. Earlier, I came up with "It's Thursday, so I must be in California." I've been commuting. It's about the same price as taking a peak time train to London. Just time to flatten a shirt and run.
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