| Two weeks and two days. |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|07:55 pm] |
I have just had an e-mail exchange with a friend wherein I mentioned my impending birthdayness, he said he/they would have to remember to get me something*, I said I didn't mean to be hinty, and he said he'd prefer that I hint than that he forget.
People. You cannot forget my birthday. I don't mean you will remember. Noooo, I mean I will remind you.** Because I love my birthday. It is my favorite holiday ever except Christmas Eve and perhaps Lucia Day. I think everybody should get something nice on my birthday, ice cream or something. I have taken to responding to, "Happy birthday!" with, "Happy my birthday to you!" I am like the queen in this regard if few others.
I am still trying to work out the details of my birthday party. I'm having one, but I'm afraid it's going to be a much smaller one this year. This means many of the people who have enlivened past birthday parties will not be invited to this one. It's not because I don't like you any more, dear hearts. It's that I am pretty drastically short of energy. Last year it was extremely important to me that I have a big birthday party in the face of the vertigo. I don't have that much energy for grand gestures of defiance this year. I just...don't.
As I go backwards in my lj tagging past entries, I am struck by how much more mental and emotional energy I had for howling at the moon then. I thought 2008 was awful, but 2009 has taken the fight right out of me. I'm not giving up on the PT, and we're still seeing slow progress. I can do things I couldn't do this time last year. But also I admit that I am more resigned in some small areas. When I bruise myself, when I break things, when I can only enjoy part of something. I am frustrated when I have to say no to things that would be fun because I physically can't do them, and I'm particularly frustrated when I'm afraid that the friends I'm saying no to are getting the message that I don't want to instead of the message that I just plain can't. But the frustration is the small sigh, not the shower of tears.
I don't think this means I'm doing better with it. I also don't think this means I'm doing dangerously badly, since I'm still doing the PT etc., all the concrete stuff that will continue to make things better in measurable, concrete ways, and since the lack of emotional energy is comparatively limited. I'm still finding the energy and the focus to write, or rather I'm finding those things again after the early days of PT. And there's been a lot going on in my family lately, some of it really good but all of it pretty intense. I'm just...not long on cope right now, and it feels like vertigo-related outbursts will harm more than they help.
I thought about not mentioning the birthday party thing, but I've had so many years of "bring your neighbor's best friend's cousin if you like" sorts of birthday parties that I was afraid some of you would feel you'd personally offended me if there wasn't some kind of late-July/early-August invitation coming your way. And realio trulio you haven't, and I hope I haven't offended you, either, by bringing it up. I know it's not good manners to bring up parties people aren't invited to. But I am tired all the way through my bones, and I need to make my birthday party a little lower-key this year so as not to exacerbate that. I hope that's not hurtful to anyone.
*He is wrong. Remembering to get me something is strictly optional. I am extravagantly pleased with presents but not the least bit perturbed by their absence.
**July 26. Now you are reminded. |
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| Minnesotan moments #1182 |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|01:56 pm] |
At the Josh Ritter concert last night:
Josh: I want to try to play a new song for you.
Enthusiastic Minnesotan man in the crowd: I'll bet it's pretty good!
Oh, Minnesotans. Never, ever change.
(It was pretty good, too. It had icy death potential, which improves most things.) |
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| My July Post |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|07:05 pm] |
Coin collecting and stamp collecting are both equally dull.
"Numismatics" sounds appropriately dry, while "philately" sounds exotic and possibly obscene.
Discuss.
(Check back mid-August for my next post.) |
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| News you can use. |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|04:07 pm] |
My calendar claims that it's National Ice Cream Day.
If my calendar is wrong, I don't want to be right.
I expect that gelato, sorbet, etc. counts for this festival as well, so I leave it in your capable hands. |
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| Same thing I'm always full of. |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|09:43 pm] |
1. I have been tagging lj entries a little at a time, in between typing revisions and writing new stuff and, y'know, the rest of my life. I find it a little daunting but gave myself full permission to be obscure when I need to. Which was a relief.
2. I have a theory now. I begin to think that many of the most useful conversations among working writers come when you can say, "How do you do such-and-such?" and you have a set of working writers who are clear that this question is not the same as, "How does one do such-and-such?" And then they can say, "Oh, I always X," or, "Usually I Y but this one time I Z and that was okay too." And then someone else says, "Really, Z? That almost never works for me, but what I like to think of is Q."
3. The revisions I am typing: they are pretty okay, I think. I am currently convinced that writing a book is like making lace: it's a whole thing when you're done, but you're almost certainly going to have a million holes in it, and you can only hope they're pretty. And work for them to be pretty. And not just pretty but in such a pattern that the reader can say, "Oh, of course, it's a shawl!" or, "How lovely, some gloves!" rather than, "It's...um...it's definitely...I like how you used a lot of thread here."
4. I have just finished watching S1 of Bones and boy howdy is that a Mary Sue. Fun Mary Sue. But uff da, the bit with her parents. Also, I am pretty damned sick of shows putting their thumb on the scales regarding their rationalist atheist characters to either force the rationalist atheist to admit that there are More Things In Heaven And Wherever or else show them as irrational for not doing so. Booth was raised Catholic, and the show does not demand that he detail how Catholicism, as a worldview, is not comprehensively successful in addressing his life situations, even though it almost certainly does have spots of being suboptimal. Nor do I want it to--I just don't want it to focus that way on Bones, either. It is okay to have characters with differing worldviews and not go out of your way, as a show, to undermine any of them, particularly if they're all fairly amiable and willing to accept new data.
5. Bones has given us a Geeky Little Brother character again. Are there no Geeky Little Sisters? Really? Or is it just that that social dynamic isn't particularly stable with our social mores? (That is, a younger adult geek woman is still likely to be parsed as potentially romantically interesting.) I would kind of like to see the Geeky Little Sister. Also, I suspect part of why we have a Geeky Little Brother is that Bones is a large enough presence that just adding Angela in makes it feel to the writers as though they have A Whole Mess Of Womens already. I may be wrong about this; we'll see. But it sort of makes me want to Take Action. And then I remember that this thing I'm revising features an older woman mentoring a younger woman as a pretty substantial character relationship. So okay then. Action Begun, at least. |
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| Back again for its first 2009 engagement! Books I quit reading. |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|09:05 pm] |
1. If you want to write a memoir, write a memoir. If you want to write a book about something else with memoir bits in it, you have to make sure that the memoir bits are roughly on a par with as interesting as your topic, or else really really short. Or else I will run away and read some other book on your topic whose author is not convinced that their own life is the most fascinating thing ever.
2. I remember being a teenager. It was not a built-in excuse for being an asshole. So whining that your parents are mean because they're poor? No. Sometimes it's not enough that the narrative be aware that the character is an asshole--you're still sticking me with a big chunk of text all about this asshole, and if they're not an entertaining asshole, I'm going to read something else.
3. Hockey is not everything. I mean this in a philosophical sense, but also in a very literal sense: hockey is not the building of Hadrian's Wall. Hockey is not the Silk Road. Trying to argue that various historical events were the True Beginning Of Hockey is likely to make me roll my hockey-loving eyes and move on.
4. Unrelieved doom. Next.
5. I know and care about several people who stammer. They do not go, "Th-this s-sentence is s-stupid." That is not how it works. It's not cute, it's not funny, quit doing it.
6. If your entire plot/premise is predicated around someone learning not to worry their pretty little head about big hard questions, go directly to hell and take your book with you.
7. If you have convincingly portrayed a protagonist everybody hates, you may consider that there's a good reason for this.
8. If you're going to compare your parents to Hitler--as an adult writing nonfiction--you need to be aware of the scale differences. No, seriously. Unconscious hyperbole is not our friend.
9. You had no respect for yourself, your reader, or your characters. Next.
10. Women do not constantly think of ourselves as though we were describing ourselves for phone sex purposes. I promise. Even lesbians and bisexual women, who may quite rightly be assumed to be fonder of women's bodies than the average straight gal, do not get their Rice Krispies while thinking of the pertness of their own breasts. In fact, I am a bit skeptical that any woman ever has gone around thinking of her own breasts as pert. Or lush. Mostly I think of mine as...mine. Like my ear or my elbow. Because...follow me carefully here...when you've had breasts for decades, you sort of get used to them, almost like they're a body part a person might have.
11. If you're going to hit a dozen genre conventions on the first two pages, you need to do it in a way that tells me that the story will not simply be a string of conventions. Three pages later, you still hadn't left the stencil. Fail. |
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| various things of awesome |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|06:03 pm] |
1. Lookie what ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) triestine sent me! ( Tentacled toys! )
2. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) strangefandom is gearing up for another round! Signup post is here.
3. I have been beta-reading again. I forgot how much I really like beta-reading. I get to read a story before anyone else does, and I can pick on all the stuff I don't like and the author says thank you!
4. I had a lovely trail run on our scenic local trail system and I saw a snake! (I realize that not all of you may think this is awesome. But after the first 1/2 second of "OMGWTFSNAKE!", after it failed to rattle at me, I was pretty pleased to have seen actual wildlife, especially since I had a camera with me.)
5. I went to our Wednesday Farmer's Market and scored all sorts of delicious local veggies, yay! (For values of local including an hour to the south, where they already have tomatoes! And squash!)
6. I am going to be in Boulder (CO) next week, if anyone wants to get together. |
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| CONvergence firsts, Part II |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|12:35 pm] |
Another first happened to me at CONvergence this past weekend. I really should have posted about this beforehand (truly, though, that redhead was very attractive), but here it is now.
My friend dmbaird did me the very flattering and completely unexpected honor of naming me in the acknowledgment page of her new novel Veil of Whispers (you can find out about it and her previous novel The Spell Keeper at her website http://www.danambaird.com/ ). This kind of thing has never happened to me before, and under the circumstances I find it only common courtesy that I plug her work. Dana is a good friend, and a good writer, and I highly recommend her books to anyone. Try them!
Of course, this means that I'll have to get my novel published so I can return the favor. No pressure (sigh)... |
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| Libyrinth by Pearl North |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|12:36 pm] |
(Review copy provided by Tor Books.)
This is one of those young adult novels that straddles the border of fantasy and science fiction. I think some of the ending is supposed to tip it over into definitely SF, but I'm not completely convinced and am much happier if I just think of it as an inhabitant of border provinces.
It's also one of those young adult novels that is explicitly, completely, for people who love books passionately. While the overarching message seems to be that literacy is good and that sharing knowledge is good, it's very much a book for preaching to the choir--I can't imagine someone who isn't already fascinated with books attaching to this one with any enthusiasm. It's not a book for conversions. And the overarching message is very strongly present. There really isn't much book there without message. I also thought the two sides of the story were too carefully balanced for believability.
I liked what North (which is a pseudonym for--well, her agent's page comes right out and says it's a pseudonym for the person who writes SF as Anne Harris, so I don't think I'm spilling any big secret, but if somebody knows otherwise, please stop by and say) did with the idea of the chosen one, though. People who like playing with fantasy tropes in that way might well enjoy what happens with that at the end. In fact, I thought the last third of the book was much stronger than the rest--I preferred Haly's insistence that she was a clerk, not a full libyrarian, to her somewhat formulaic interaction with the libyrinth bullies.
The title word bugged me some. It's clearly Library + Labyrinth, with a hint of Liberation as well, but like most portmanteau words--see Anathem over and over again for other examples--it struck me as not really as clever as its author had hoped, and having the libyrarians of the libyrinth made me feel like I was dealing with a 4-year-old who can't say "librarian" properly--the lie-buh-rarians work at the lie-berry in my head. Meh.
I am also frustrated that the ad copy seems to be focusing on only one of the plot threads, when I liked the other character better. But my favorite bit with her is a spoiler, so...yah. I have a favorite bit completely not hinted at in the ad copy, is what, down to which character it happens to. |
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| photos and rambling about running! |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|10:28 am] |
I decided that my post yesterday was so boring that I really needed to bring the camera along on my next trail run. Which was this morning. And I saw wildlife! (You know, in addition to the usual spectacular desert scenery, blah blah blah, don't you wish you lived here?)
( Pitchas! ) |
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| fruit, books, cool people. |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|01:02 am] |
I'm going to be at Readercon from Thursday to Sunday! I will have with me:
-- An acoustic guitar
-- fresh fruit
-- sewing materials in order to create another zebunkey (see here)
-- leftover Indian food
-- possibly some Munson's Chocolates (the only unabashedly good thing about Connecticut, heh)
-- Grá Linnaea :-D
Neither of us are doing any panels, but I think we're also going to make a concentrated effort to spend more time interacting with other folks this con. If you're going to be there and want to hang out, you should say something! If you aren't going, but have a cool friend who'll be there, you should say something!
I'm a little bit shy around new people, especially at cons, but I truly want to meet you/your cool friends. So leave me a note! |
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| Odd Michael Jackson Funereal Facts |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|07:20 pm] |
I've resisted knowing anything about Michael Jackson's final hours, death, will, or memorial service. He was a troubled entertainer, a man of great gifts and equal troubles. I wish his family well. But, I don't believe his life's work was important enough to merit the attention he's being given, which rivals, and may ultimately exceed, Princess Diana's. She is a less troubling icon for the age, at any rate. And yet, I have not been able to escape knowing something, and as usual, it's the odd bits that stick to my brain pan. Speaking of which...
Michael Jackson's body has been buried without a brain. The brain has been retained in order to "harden" for chemical testing. Thanks to the Guardian for this.
Michael Jackson's coffin is the same style and make as James Brown's -- gold-plated solid bronze with blue velvet lining. It's the Promethean from the Batesville Casket Company. And thanks to Hollywood Grind for this.
Looking to invest $25K? Here are the Promethan's details (source):
PROMETHEAN By Batesville Custom Products
Z94-665-LH
Bronze/Custom Interior
Blue Onyx Velultra Velvet
(also available in white, red, and green)
48oz. Polished/Monoseal
Z94 Promethean Bronze/Custom Interior
48 Oz. Polished Bronze/Monoseal
FEATURES:
Semi-Precious Metal, Naturally Resistant to Rust and Corrosion
Interior Chemically Protected Against Rust and Corrosion
Batesville's 4 Point Protection Package
Locking mechanism plus a one piece rubber gasket to completely seal the top
Continuous weld to completely seal the bottom
Each casket factory tested for resistance to entry of outside elements
Fully insured warranty
Round Corner Design
Hand Polished Mirror Finish
14-Karat Gold Plated Hardware
Safety Seal, Swing Bar Hardware
Adjustable Bed and Mattress
Unique Family Memorial Portfolio
Memorial Record System
Living Memorial Program
Batesville Casket, btw, sells a variety of high-end coffins, including the Dimensions series, which is the big and tall version. Here's their line of basic bronze, prior to the gold.
It is strange to me that we still create such odd closed beds in which our loved ones are to find their final (and permanent) rest. It's such an outdated concept for a secular society, and, in my imagination, cold and lonely. I'm much more in favor of green burials -- they make more sense. I got my first good introduction to the concept in Stiff. Now if we could equal their consoling power, we would have something. Thanatopsis, anyone?
When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;—
Go forth under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings, while from all around—
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air—
Comes a still voice—Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,
Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist
Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go
To mix forever with the elements;
To be a brother to the insensible rock,
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould.
Yet not to thine eternal resting-place
Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down
With patriarchs of the infant world,—with kings,
The powerful of the earth,—the wise, the good,
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun; the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods—rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green; and, poured round all,
Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste,—
Are but the solemn decorations all
Of the great tomb of man!
--William Cullen Bryant (ll. 8-45)
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| Organized cat is organized |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|05:15 pm] |
My palm pre is awesome. It has so many fantastic features, but there's this one I have to tell you about. It's sort of like a spreadsheet, but it's for time. I think it's called a callendor or something like that. Anyway, here's how it works. You make plans for your time in advance, and then you enter them into your callendor. Then you can look at the callendor on your phone through the course of your day and find out what you're supposed to do. It will even remind you. Using a callendor helps you not to plan too many things for one day. It also helps for those slippery days where you don't have a set schedule, but you need to do a lot of things. Turn on the callendor, and voila! Suddenly you have a schedule. Because you make it for yourself. Also, it's nice to help get things done that you are waiting until you "have time." I don't often find I "have time" for anything anymore, but if I look ahead on the callendor I can make time, and that's almost as good.
Yeah, I don't know how people managed their time without a palm pre. It's fabulous.
I also appreciate very very very much the multitasking ability of the Pre. I do think I chose the right phone. Just today I got some appointments in email, and needed to go back and forth between email and calendar to enter them. It would have been a royal pain in the butt if I couldn't keep both apps open at the same time to do that.
I don't know if I mentioned that at first the battery ran out really fast, but it looks like after a couple cycles of charging it has a pretty normal battery life for a cell phone. Not epic, but it will certainly get me through a day. |
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| independently |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|01:37 pm] |
It is looking like I only post when I have photos or want to ramble about running. But actually, I do other things, really! (Although running is my passion these days. I am not sure why. I suspect it's because Britt is waist-deep in his own passion, which involves solar panels and windmills and federal funding requests and tax benefits, so we are not going hiking or backpacking much these days.)
But Britt was lured away from his work by our friend Jim, who tempted him with fly-fishing from his dory on the Rio Grande near South Fork, so we drove out in our Sportsmobile on Friday night and on Saturday Britt and Jim floated and fished, while I paddled my Fat Cat (which I bought last year after borrowing one to float the Dolores) behind them. Nice and relaxing, and now I really want to get out on the rivers some more.
Then on Sunday we drove back as far as Vallecito where we went to a friend's wedding up on his family ranch at the edge of the wilderness, and we drank a lot of very good beer and ate more food than we really should have and took some home with us. Leftover wedding cake = breakfast of champions! |
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| Sing hey the thoughtful livejournal readers that you are. |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|11:55 am] |
I said this over on Facebook, but I will repeat myself here:
markgritter and I are going to the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company's performance of H.M.S. Pinafore on Saturday at the Lake Harriet Bandshell. We'll be bringing picnic for ourselves, which will probably include enough bars and/or cookies to share with a few people if people turn up. The performance starts at 7:30. We will be picnicking somewhat in advance of that. If you're around and going to be there, look for us. We're likely to be on lawn chairs on the little rise behind the benches.
GSVLOC generally puts priority on music first, costume second, and dance third. That's for their stage productions. At the bandshell it's not a fully enacted performance, it's mostly just the music, possibly some funny hats. (For those of you who like dance a great deal, this may actually be a good thing: no need to worry that anyone will butcher the choreography.) They really want to get you out of there by dark, too, so the intermission is short and the pacing moves along at a really good clip. |
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| Spam ravings |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|11:27 am] |
I've been getting a lot of spam lately that's putatively from me.
I think there's a failure in the spammers' algorithm. But it just irritates me that someone might think I wouldn't remember sending myself something about, say, lottery winnings.
Oy. |
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| Moves: REC or Quarantine? |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|09:47 am] |
So Thursday night I'll have the opportunity to watch the kind of scary movie that no one else likes.
I'm tempted to watch either REC or Quarantine (the North American remake).
Suggestions?
(Or should I just catch up on my cult movies and watch The Faculty? Or Once Upon A Time In The West?) |
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| finally. |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|08:55 am] |
I finally had a dream with Grandpa in it last night.
I'm not saying what, because some parts of my life and heart are not for public consumption, but it was a good dream. And I am so very glad.
I miss him so much. |
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