http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/020999.html

Girl #1: My dad used to call me that. He would say, "Bye bye, meshugana," and I always thought he was saying, "Bye bye my sugar, now." I was a confused kid.
Girl #2: Or just a shiksa.

--Union Square

Overheard by: Michelle

( Cut for Couple-y-ness )

At work, they've closed the cafeteria and replaced it with vending machines. This in itself is terrible. But the worst part is that there are no change machines. Used to be if I had no change, I could get a Diet Coke through the cashier, but NO MORE. So here I am, with a $10 and a $20 and $.63 and there is no way I can get my Diet Coke fix unless I leave the building. BALLS.

A lot of people are off for the whole week, so it's quiet around here. And cold. But then, it's always cold. I submit that the office HVAC is controlled by malicious penguins.

Internet bonus: Short film of Zooey D. playing Sid Vicious against JGL's Nancy. Not from (500), but inspired by a conversation in it.

This has me thinking now that (500) is sort of the new Annie Hall. Not that we necessarily need one; there isn't even a Star Wars to knock out of Best Picture.

Is it just me or is Zooey more convincing as Sid than any other character she's played?

I'm-a feelin': pleased
I'm a-hearin': FS #282: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans / The Messenger / Ben Foster-Oren Moverman Intervi

Zonar files a report on Thanksgiving to the Superion High Command.

Do you make stuff that you sell online? Are you a writer, musician or other sort with stuff available online that people should totally purchase for the holiday gift giving season? Do you run a small business like Mary Kay or other similar things?

Thanksgiving night I'll be posting a list of online gift-shopping that will deliver business to LJ'ers. If you wish to be included, please reply to this post with a short (30 words) description of what you sell and a link. If you offer any special deals for the season for for LJ'ers please include that info too.

I'll organize the list by product themes and post on Thursday.

Comments screened.

The Black Friday Sale that I mentioned this morning has released the Rock Band prices, and it's actually a deal on the special editions of Rock Band 2 for $70 a pop (shipping included) for the PS3 or the Xbox 360. They're already over half sold-out, so if you're going to grab them, now's your chance.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/kc4Qbrjvjes/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=211394

Poll #1489386
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 24

Polar Bears

Pandas

Saw recently two films that I'd sort of avoided because they seemed go geared towards lovers of quirky independent films. Then I realized that I was one of those very lovers, though I have my limits (the limit line runs through Sunshine Cleaning).

First was Brothers Bloom, a con-men movie from Rian Johnson, the director of Brick. In addition to the quirk, I'd also been put off by a general weariness with con-men and a twice-shy feeling given how disappointing the follow-up films of Johnson's fellow young auteur, Donnie Darko's Richard Kelly, have been (Southland Tales, The Box).

But, rollick took the initiative to netflix it and I jumped in with her. I was immediately charmed by a rhyming opening sequence narrated by magician Ricky Jay, describing the childhood of two orphans and how they become confidence men in part because the older one realized that the younger is much more comfortable carrying out plans than just living his life. (There's also an early scene where they celebrate the successful completion of their "last con" with a large portion of the cast of Brick. Well-played, Johnson.)

Without that intro, I might have given up on the film, given the factors above. With it, I was intrigued, because every little con played on the marks is a piece of the bigger well-meaning con the older brother (Mark Ruffalo) is playing on the younger. Ruffalo is one of the great screen grifters, by the way, up there with Edward Burns in Confidence (also with Rachel Weisz as pretty scenery). One of many great Ruffalo touches is this crooked, vibrating fingers hand-offer that seems like it would inspire the old saw that you should count your fingers after shaking hands with some people. Rinko Kikuchi (the deaf girl from Babel) is also iconically great as their mute accomplice, who reminds me somewhat of Dr. Phibes' assistant Vulnavia in her ultra-cool efficiency.

The film meanders more than a little, and crosses the limit line occasionally (Weisz crashing her car wherever she goes for example). And it's with Funny People and Dark Knight in the category of "films overlong because they contain their own sequels", but in all these cases I'd rather have the not-quite-as-good conjoined sequel than no sequel at all.

Btw, is the Bloom in the title just their name, or is it also what they do during the course of the film? Maybe?

I then saw (500) Days Of Summer, which was a film I long wanted to see largely because I didn't feel comfortable unleashing the torrents of abuse that welled up in me whenever I saw the title without seeing the film attached to it. Plus it had Joseph Gordon Levit (from Brick) and Zooey Deschanel (who literally has indy in her blood), and I am, as mentioned above, afraid of being hurt by those I once loved.

Which is perhaps a good way to approach a film about a failed relationship. As in Bloom, we start off with narration telling us what the film is about, and once again I think it's vital, both in telling us that this relationship is not going to last and showing us that the story is a thought experiment rather than something really real. It then proceeds to prove this with a musical number, Han Solo cameo, and recurring appearances by what appears to be Holden's little sister from Catcher In The Rye.

The action of the story I found pretty delightful, and the conceit of moving back and forth within the 500 days was well used, even when played for laughs. The characters were the big weak spot, especially JG-L's protagonist, who had a flatness I'd associate more with Keanu Reeves or Marky Mark. I can explain this away, given that he's sort of warping himself to fit into a relationship that's not right for him, and very occasionally he shows more naturalness at exactly the points where he and Zooey aren't clicking. But it's still a flaw.

Otoh, the film seems to know exactly where it's going and gets there in 95 minutes, and I find I'm lately appreciating works that know what they're about and when they should end. The ultimate of this for me right now is Jefferson Airplane's song "White Rabbit", two minutes & 31 seconds of psychadelia with two short verses, conclusion, and done. (500) can't quite match Girlfriend Experience's efficient 77 minutes, but (500) has jokes and music to fit in so I can't fault it much there.

They really could the parentheses, though. That, again, is over the line. Unless they were going for self-parody, which is entirely possible now that I think of it.

Btw, big recent loser in the "knows when to end" awards? BSG finale. They lost me and they got me back and they lost me again, and more, and more, and more. Blah blah makes Return Of The King look like blah.

I'm-a feelin': impressed
I'm a-hearin': FS #282: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans / The Messenger / Ben Foster-Oren Moverman Intervi

1. Ken Jennings just got ninja'd. (Having been there and done that myself, I do empathize. Multiple folks often come up with good ideas for jokes, after all.)

2. Insurance company denies coverage based on out-of-context, locked-down Facebook photos. Is there currently any industry -- and I'm including organized crime here -- that's less classy? (And yes, I can think of a few ways they could have gotten the photos without hacking, but that doesn't make this any less disgusting.)

3. Matt Taibbi on the difference between Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin.

4. Small Beer Press takes "inspiration" from the ever-so-ethical folks at Harlequin (read with a grain of sale, of course).

5. Oh noes! There's an Eggo shortage!

6. The complete Daria is coming to DVD! Yay!

7. The AJC has a profile on a day in the life of a repo man. It's relatively non-critical, but still interesting.

8. Yet another reason I love Warren Ellis.

9. JMS is remaking Forbidden Planet! I predict that it'l start slowly, become absolutely riveting shortly after the halfway point, and end up withe the worst ending since The Mist.

10. Finally, because the web truly has everything, here's a collection of People Eating Weird Things.

http://feeds.penny-arcade.com/~r/pa-mainsite/~3/gKbFp3TVh7w/

I have a Japanese friend who already speaks English fairly well, but since he'd like to improve his fluency he asked if I could help him out with grammar and so on. I agreed, but then he hit me with a question I can't think of any satisfactory answer for!

We talk about travelling in a car or taxi, but on a train or plane, and he wants to know why that is since you're still in an enclosed space on a train or plane and not literally sitting on top of them. The best explanation I've managed to come up with is that boarding a plane or train involves stepping onto a platform before going to your seat, whereas when you get into a car or taxi you usually go straight from standing to sitting in your seat. I'm not sure if that's a decent explanation for the grammar though, or just a handy way to remember which is which.

Is there a decent explanation for this particular grammatical rule? Or is it one of those things where there is no particular reason why the rule works that way?

At the "Let's Write a Filk" panel, I was the only person with a word processor at hand (pen and paper), and so I became Recording Secretary for a song that eventually became "The Wet Side of the Moon", about finding water up there. The song that resulted, composed by Roberta Rogow, the Denebian Slime Devils, many other panel attendees and myself, was published in the next day's Philcon Rocket(!)


The Wet Side of the Moon
(to the tune of "The Water is Wide"--trad.)

The Eagle landed, we set down,
But dust and tocks were all we found;
We took a look and went away.
No reason then for us to stay.

We went again, we went in style.
We hit a golf ball half a mile;
We grabbed more rocks and took them home,
No reason then, to further roam.

Now forty years have come and gone,
But still the memory lingers on;
If there was water in that place,
We'd use the Moon as Alpha Base.

To find Moon water was our goal;
Prospecting at the southern pole,
We launched a probe up Luna's rear,
And said, "Good Lord, there's water here!"

A brand-new future's coming soon,
We know this ain't our grandpa's Moon;
Ice cubes to fill up throats and bars!
Today the Moon--Tomorrow Mars!

Written at the Philcon '09 Parody Workshop in commemoration of the discovery of water on the Moon by "The Denebian Slime Devils"; Ariel Cinii, Robrta Rogow, Amy Fass, Mark Mandel, Maughorn, et al.

So, it came to my attention through the wonderful maryrobinette last night that Fairyland is eligible for the Andre Norton Award.

For those of you who don't know, the Andre Norton award is associated with the Nebulas and announced and voted on at the same time, but honors YA work.

I had no idea. I assumed self-published e-editions were out of the running. That it would be eligible when the print edition comes out from Feiwel and Friends.

Turns out, it will not be eligible when that happens. It is only eligible this year, when it first appeared in English.

This is Fairyland's shot at this.

Now, obviously, I have a vested interest in this, as being nominated for and winning awards is awesome, and to even be nominated before a traditional print volume appears would be amazing.

But outside of my personal considerations, wouldn't it be cool for something this independent, this unique and tribal and viral, to be nominated for one of the big awards in the field? Wouldn't it be cool to shake things up, to show that this kind of thing, if the quality is good enough, can be considered alongside shiny hardback bestsellers?

Only SFWA members can vote. But I humbly ask that if you can vote, consider this one. Consider the book, which I am so proud of, and consider the impact. Spread the word to voters you know, if you can't vote yourself.

Of course, a lot of people think campaigning for an award is yucky and I kind of do, too, but for an online work that even I didn't know was eligible til last night, which will not be eligible when it comes out in print, I feel it's within my yuck parameters to post about it, and ask for--not votes, just consideration.

The book is complete and can be read in its entirety on my website for free.

I'm-a feelin': surprised

http://megatokyo.com/strip/1243

Chapter 10: "A.F.K." comic 1243
[read...]
[permalink]

I sense that many House fans will be buying this shirt.

(I'm going to have to check back every week now; who knows what Ellis is going to put on a shirt next.)

I am well and truly worn out by my weekend of fabulousness. Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day to visit Oak Park. Standing around for an eternity on State Street like an asshole because I didn't realise the 147 stopped running earlier on Sunday than on every other day of the week? Not so awesome. Adjusting for that, getting back and forth between home and the PROP probably isn't as bad as I always tend to remember it being. (Oh, and speakin o my h0miez in tha OP, big shout out to lhn for seeing to it that I made it to right places at the right times and to zompist for unaccountably valuing my opinions more highly than I do myself.)

Coming home to a kitchen in need of being cleaned up was also not exactly a butter-and-sugar sandwich, but it was the very least I could do to show my appreciation for the fantastic brunch the GWO masterminded. (I kept waiting for someone to ask what my contribution was so I could smile cheekily and say, "I ironed this one napkin!" Which would've been it had I not been pressed into service at the eleventh hour mixing the drinks and heating the tortillas.) He went from guarded naysaying to wholehearted embrace in the blink of an eye. I thought there might be enough clafoutis left over to take it with me to my next engagement, but it was destroyed. (This, my friends, in the bear dinner party effect in action.)

Damn, the bit left over could've been my breakfast!

In fact, I had so much excellent home cooking over the course of the weekend I'm not sure how I'll be able to stomach anything commercial during this brief bridge to the impending turkeypalooza. And can I just say I love how ex-colonials out-English the English? We even roasted chestnuts yesterday! Between those and the scones with clotted cream, I'm not sure how I had room for two kinds of pie afterwards, but I did. I'm kind of a hero that way.

The true surprise highlight to the weekend, however, was having aadroma crash chez nous for a few hours. We had no idea he was coming into town for a birthday party and monshu has always wanted to interact with him for more than the thirty seconds of heavy groping that traditionally accompanies their rare and brief encountres at community events. He even brought in a special dictionary just to help him out with his scrolls. So many things to love about that! Such a shame I didn't get a chance to introduce him to my bar buddy Denis, who was intrigued by my descriptions of the breadth of erudition (as well anyone might).

( Random gratuitous bear-world-too-small story, now made trendy with Facebook references )

Tags: bears, eats, weekend

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/020998.html

Guy unloading semi #1: Man, this shit sucks!
Guy unloading semi #2: Yeah.
Guy unloading semi #1: Fuck this guy! You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna complain!
Guy unloading semi #2: Yeah.

--38th & 8th

Overheard by: Ari

Monster Cat: Atrocity

Tags: monster cat

Do you realize how big that is? Four.

One of the best things I've messed up in the past year was losing our baby monitor. The way our house is set up, dilletante and I sleep in the basement and N's bedroom is on the second floor. When we lost the monitor, she was suddenly able to get up out of bed herself to pee in the middle of the night; also, now, in the mornings, when she wakes up, she toddles down the stairs and crawls into our bed to cuddle (and maybe fall back asleep if it's early).

I love sleeping through the night. I love it almost as much as I love the morning snuggles.

This morning, she came downstairs and cuddled in the crook of my arm while I sang to her, and she had a big slow sleepy smile on her face.

"Good morning, Natalie."
"Good morning."
"You're four."
*dreamy sigh* "...really?"
"Really."

She fluttered her eyelashes.

"Wow. I'm four."
"Do you feel older?"
She nodded gently. "Also bigger."



( You ARE bigger. )

So yesterday I had the quick thrill of going into a Barnes & Noble and seeing my new book, A Kidnapped Santa Claus, for sale. It was part of a big display of holiday themed books and man, there are a lot of holiday themed books. The book was not in the prime real estate, being faced out on one of the lower shelves. I considered pulling the old switcheroo, moving my book up to the top and some other book down, but there was a clerk sort of hovering around and I didn't have the guts.
When I got home and told the lovely Krsiten this story she chuckled and pointed out the irony: back when I was a bookstore clerk I hated it when authors would come in and pull that shit. I lamely tried to clarify that I wouldve tried to make it look neat and tidy (something the jerk authors never bothered to do when I was wokring there--they would just take their stupid book and prop it up in fronf of other books, making the shelf look messy and creating more work for me) but I admit she had a point.
Still, it was good to see it, and maybe I'll do the switcheroo once Christmas is a little closer.

Tags: hypocrisy, kidnapped santa claus
I'm-a feelin': listless
I'm a-hearin': "Me So Horny" by 2 Live Crew

Another weekend of costume-making madness and fun at yuki_scorpio's flat. There was rice pudding and Princess Tutu and eyebrow-threading (ow. but my eyebrows are nice and neat) and bashing at metal circles with pink hammers. And much stabbing of my own fingers with pins and an awl, because I am clumsy. I have more work to do on the costume this week but Pez doing her whole marquis-of-sewing business is *awesomely* helpful.

(I am repressing the bit where she threatened me with pictures of Gackt. Yes.)

Meanwhile I need to change my work password, log out of everything, and clear my desktop of anything personal so that the techs don't get too intrigued when installing the new build software later. Sigh.

Tags: anime, arty and crafty, cosplay, fangirl obsessiveness, friends, inexplicable weirdness, work

1) Having coffee with my friend Elissa: "That's what I like about you, Chris. You always run with the joke ten seconds longer than I expect."

2) From a New York Times interview with Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner:

I learned a long time ago that if you can corner a genius comedy brain in panic, you’re going to get something extraordinary because they fight — they don’t want to die. And [Mel]’s a genius.

Like Yossarian, I plan to live forever or die trying.

The A.V. Club presents its 15 best vidya-games of the decade.

It's a fine list, a solid list, a list with which I have little to no quarrel. Here's my top 20 (absolutely reflecting my own tastes, which explains the general lack of team shooters, racing games, Madden, platformers, Japanese RPGs, MMORPGs, and anything made by Microsoft):

1. Grand Theft Auto III, Rockstar, 2001
2. The Sims, EA Games, 2000
3. Rock Band, EA Games/MTV Games, 2007
4. BioShock, 2K Games, 2007
5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Activision, 2007
6. Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar, 2008
7. Katamari Damacy, Namco, 2004
8. The Orange Box, Valve/EA Games, 2007
9. Fallout 3, Bethesda Softworks, 2008
10. Civilization III, Infogrames/Aspyr, 2001
11. Wii Sports, Nintendo, 2006
12. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Rockstar, 2004
13. Fight Night: Round 3, EA Sports, 2006
14. Left 4 Dead, Valve, 2008
15. Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo, 2004
16. FIFA 09, EA Sports, 2008
17. Shadow of the Colossus, Sony Entertainment, 2005
18. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Activision, 2001
19. Silent Hill 2, Konami, 2001
20. NBA 2K2, Sega, 2001

When will we ever get a truly great baseball sim? And has any studio/label/publisher put out as much consistently good work this decade than Rockstar Games?

Caught this from Rich Johnston's Bleeding Cool. For this year's Children in Need, they got OVER 100 ANIMATED CHARACTERS, from the Thunderbirds to Bob the Builder and Spongebob Squarepants, to do a six-minute medley of songs. Took them over eight months to produce but the end result is incredible.

I'm not going to embed it, so go out to here to watch it and read the story behind it.

So an hour ago, I wrote this in my Twitter stream:

Freedy Johnson just feels like one of those guys who peers into my soul whenever he writes music. Ray Davies, too.

In days past, I probably would have made that into a journal entry, asking, "What songwriters feel like they're looking over your shoulder into your life?"

But then, to get interesting comments, I'd have to explain why I like Ray Davies and Freedy Johnston so much. Because if I don't elucidate exactly what about them calls to me, then I get two-word comments saying, "Tori Amos" and no explanation as to what about her people find interesting. (Not that I could ever understand Tori's appeal; any enjoyment I once had for her was cauterized out of me by an ex-girlfriend playing the entirety of "Little Earthquakes" at me against my will well over two hundred times.) Unless I lead by example, my interaction with people will be boring.

Which, in turn, means that I have to spend some time thinking about why I love Freedy so much. Is it his plaintive, not-very-good-but-earnest voice? His way of writing lyrics that show a quiet, hopeful desperation in the midst of poverty and woe? His expressiveness? And then I'd have to write that up, and find a way to make it interesting, and damn, I have things to do this morning.

So I Twitter it, and get no responses on Twitter and maybe three responses on Facebook, and am satisfied for the effort it took. I could have made that into a real post, I guess, but I gotta move on today. Maybe tomorrow.

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/020997.html

20-something: Oh, and remember, when we go to Jen's apartment, don't touch anything. Both of her roommates just found out they have genital herpes. And she's afraid she has it now too.
Friend: Well, that's what you get for wearing ten-dollar clothes.

--Broadway & 52nd St

Yes. I'd like you to exist now.

Tags: writer's block
I'm a-hearin': Solar X - Dasha 1,2,3,4... (Valuecube Radio)

( Overview/Review )

x-posted to my journal

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/c5oXiMsmQhQ/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=210818

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/KT-Y30rXqbU/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=182239

Last week.

Monday

"I'm just not sure if I'm doing the right thing," she said, shrugging.
I thought for a moment, settling back into the couch. Then: "What's the one thing you could do right now that would make you feel in control?"
"Driving somewhere."
"Where?"
"The beach." A pause. "Salem. That would do it."
"Okay," I said. "You want to go?"
"Yes." Then she did a double-take. "Wait; do you?"
I checked my watch. "It's only 10:00 now. There'll still be a bar open when we get there."

Tuesday

Wednesday

Someone on the Davis Square LiveJournal community asked a few months back for volunteers to practice Rubenfeld Synergy on. I volunteered because I thought it would be interesting.

Rubenfeld Synergy relies on gently shifting or pressing the subject's body while they lay back. The subject describes how they feel while this goes on: what parts of their body are in contact with the table, how the realignment of weight affects the rest of their body, and so forth. It's not a massage, or even acupressure. The subject has to remain present and vocal throughout.

It's like assisted meditation. Constantly narrating how your body feels keeps you grounded in the present moment. You focus on sensations and abandon the stream of background chatter we all have in our heads. I came out of the session feeling the opposite of detached: very present, as if continually being told, "I'm standing, I'm walking, I'm sitting." A very Zen type of concentration.

I wouldn't ascribe any more mystical aspects to this than I would to meditation or massage. But it was interesting.

Thursday


Original post

I'm a-hearin': The Replacements - "Alex Chilton"

Apparently that chick from Gigli fell down while jumping off a guy during a live shoe commercial? IKR. But anyway, I saw the video and I couldn't tell it wasn't some kind of dance move like the kids are doing these days. I wish I was that good at standing up.

But the most important thing I learned today is that, in Chihuahua, Mexican Mennonites dominate local cheese production.

I've had a hell of a time writing anything this month, and it's led to an interesting pair of thoughts in my evolution as a writer.

The first is that I'm starting to get writers' block, which in my case consists of looking at the page continually and going, "No! That is not good enough." I am now a decent enough writer that I can often see the flaws as I'm writing it, and trying to fix them all is leaving me with two sentences for a day's work. Which is kinda crap, since these sentences aren't notably better than what I started with.

I must remember what matociquala said: It's okay to suck. I've been hurling myself into the basement and saying, "All right, self, let's start suckin'." Which helps.

The other thing is that for me, writers' block is often an expression of my reformed Kingist stance on writing. I don't believe in plotting; I like the idea of having a general end goal, but my flaw as a writer is that I get hung up on having people do whatever it takes to advance my plots. I'll get focused on What Needs To Happen next, and find ridiculous ways for the characters to pull the next level on my plot machine. That leads to very stale and unbelievable characterization, which in turn leads to craptacular stories. So the Stephen King design of unearthing a story word by word appeals to me.

And if I can't make a story work, it's often because I'm trying too hard to make the characters do something that they shouldn't and not concentrating on what they would do in the circumstances I've created. Which is a shame, because often what they would do is more interesting.

I'm like a bad DM, demanding my PCs enter the Evil Temple Of The Soul-Eating Demon with two forks and a piece of string. When my PCs rightfully say, "Fuck this, we're going to die, let's go someplace else and see what we can scrounge up," as the DM I can spend a lot of time trying to justify why they'd enter the Evil Temple unarmed... Or I can let them go where they want, and let everything fall out as it would, even if that means they never get back to the Evil Temple I've spent so much time creating.

That's inherently more interesting, because if my characters are at the Evil Temple with their cutlery and string, the readers are going, "Oh, yeah, this is where they enter and beat the bad guy." When my characters surprise me by saying, "All right, fuck it, let's go get shitfaced and see if a better plan arises," then I surprise the reader.

So when I'm staring at the page until my eyes bleed, what I have to remember is to ask myself is, "Does this really have to happen this way?" Even if, in the case of my latest story, the whole reason I wrote this story is now going to go out the window, that's okay. It turns out this story about bagged broccoli isn't a horror story, but rather a fantastic hopeful story. Rebuild it and make it honest.

I dunno. I still have a long way to go as a writer. Perhaps I always will. All I can do is keep an open mind and try to suck less, and perhaps my eyes will be opened.

Twin Peaks characters, places, and things picspam + pilot picspam
(image-heavy)

Made with recruiter aims in mind, but since everyone here is already a big Twin Peaks fan, these two posts are more for fun and reminiscing. Hope you enjoy them. :)

music-smith: A mechanic who makes the metal parts of pianofortes, &c. [Edward Lloyd's Encyclopædic Dictionary, 1895]

Tags: tfew

The pipe has been replaced (in two chunks after the corrosion was found to have spread further up than originally thought).  The builders who are going to sort out the joists, plaster, etc. are now booked in - but not until the 10th of December.  Looks like it'll all be over by Christmas.

Of course, we'll then want to replace the carpet in that room, and get it set up so that it's the bedroom again.  Joy...

For the last few weeks I've noticed I've been stumbling a bit. When walking (duh, when else would one stumble). It's like I've picked up my foot and am putting it forward to take a step and the toes hit the ground mid-stride, causing a bit of a stumble. It's more often the right foot, but I have stumbled on the left at least once that I noticed. No falls.

It's pretty rare, and I've never been a very graceful person anyway, so I can't tell if it's "normal" occasional stumbling or if I should worry about it. Maybe I'm being lazy and not picking my feet up enough. Maybe it's the particular shoes I've been wearing at home (where I seem to encounter the issue most often).

But in the back of my mind, I do worry a bit. Since someone, years ago, once told me that Achalasia was probably a symptom of MS. Now, there's no foundation for that. Lots of people have Achalasia and not MS, and there's no evidence that Achalasia is a symptom of MS. However, I do worry a bit about parallels in terms of autoimmune disease. They don't know what causes Achalasia. What happens in Achalasia is the nerves of the esophagus die. Some suspect this is because an autoimmune disease is attacking those nerves. And what causes MS? An autoimmune disease attacking nerves.

Other than the stumbling, I don't think I have other bad things going on (excepting the Achalasia, of course). So I'm probably just being paranoid and worrying for nothing.

It wasn't the thing I intended to get done last night, but the Bristol abstract is now off my desk (hey, if anyone else had submitted yet, do you want to compare initial response letters? does anyone else do that as neurotically as I do?). I owe a lot of people a lot of thanks for being critical of my first draft of it a couple of months ago, even if the whole thing made me retreat into a cave of "I am not a real scholar."

Other than Patty, I didn't have anyone look at it this time, but many of those suggestions made it a stronger thing, and I'm ultimately proud of what I sent and feel it has potential legs for other conferences/publications if Bristol doesn't pan out. Of course, I'll hardly be so ambivalent if it gets rejected.

Right now, though, I'm just particularly proud of this sentence, which is all you get -- "... thus the mourning activities of the fan community become an act of partial defictionalization, moving the desired bodies of personal and narrative fantasy into a tangible reality of absence."

TANGIBLE REALITY OF ABSENCE. I love my brain.

Somewhat on point: Venice is drowning and its people are leaving. Last week a funeral was staged for the dying city. You are witnessing the beginning of a myth. In two thousands years no one will know the origins of this tale or know if there was once any truth to it, and those who believe that there was once a slow-dying place of masks will most surely be called mad. via chris_walsh.

NASA suggests that you Be a Martian! via wcg. Me? Right now, I'm stretching my toes and thinking of one of my OCs in a recent fic.

Also in space-related news: Galileo's missing fingers found. I didn't even know they were missing.

Is anyone else, really, really... I don't know... concerned that the shuttle program is almost over and we seem to have no plans for further manned missions into space?

Adam Lambert kisses a man on stage at the AMA's and CNN feels the need to tell us that "ABC editors did not appear to remove any of Lambert's performance for the later feed. In fact, the network had teased the audience that it would be 'an outrageous performance.'"

gwailowrite, however, says it was edited in the rebroadcast.

Well, that's on point after yesterday's thing about the sexual perception of gay women vs. gay men. I don't really give a crap about Adam Lambert at all, but right now, I want to kiss him. I bet this subject will be burning up the Internets today, from discussions of gay visibility to slasher squee.

Facebook hates gingers. More accurately, a 12-year-old might have been beaten because "a Facebook page stating that Friday was 'Kick a Ginger Day,' referring to redheads and possibly inspired by an episode of the South Park series, may have sparked the injuries at the middle school, authorities said."

Fandom Secrets Bingo from phaetonschariot.

Yesterday Patty was talking to me on the subway about a Bollywood film she was watching that's a retelling of Othello and in talking about the guy playing Iago, accidentally called Iago, Ianto. I laughed for a really long time, and then my head spun off into all sorts of terrible dark places.

Later, she was watching some old Disney movie thing with a clairvoyant Welsh pig in it, and she started referring to it as Ianto!Pig and going on about its big blue eyes. I might have laughed way harder than was strictly appropriate.

Heroes and Sociopaths: Not that dissimilar. Whoniverse folks need to run Jack and the Doctor through the filter of that article. Yes. via mlleglass.

2009 -- WTF with kicking everyone's ass?

Negotiating with churches? Really? Fairly rational piece, but that this set of thoughts has to even exist....

Weirdly nicest thing about being home, other than the obvious and the not for your reading pleasure? -- the "audit the Fed" demonstration in Union Square yesterday.

The anthology from therealljidol from Fey Publishing will be out soon, but I don't know more than that.

I think I pinched a nerve or slept really funny or something otherwise stupid, as my hand/arm is all tingly today.

I should make a point to call my new headshot guy today, as well as the dude directing my play. Also, should go to bank. And now, off to work! Nice thing about jet-lag -- suddenly I'm a morning person.

Department of Shitty Songs I Am Obsessed With: All scenes in ConSweet which Evan is busy being an asshole and/or famous are now being written to "Let It Rock" on repeat. It makes me feel like I'm going to hell. It's also perfect.

Department of Shitty Songs I Am Obsessed With, pt. 2: Oh my god, I just listened to Lady Gaga for the first time and now I am hooked. The Bad Romance video practically deserves an essay of its own. Also, hello, 1980s NYC club scene references. I remember you.

Department of Casting Call Observations: "Sexy Stewardesses and Handsome Pilots" -- for something set now. Not so much with the reality there (I know, I know, MEDIA!), although pilots still have strong jaw-lines most times it seems. Including the woman that was the co-pilot on my flight back from Zurich. Did I say I loved my brain? I hate my brain.

i spent so much of the last week either at work or hanging out with family (including Natalie) watching movies, it seems kind of weird to look up and realize it's Monday.

i worked a lot this week, including Saturday morning, after which i went over to Nat's for the afternoon. i listened while she vented, and then commiserated about married life (hey, sometimes i allow myself to remember!): the fears and frustrations and general angst. we eventually settled on the couch to watch Twilight (since she hadn't seen it, and wanted to watch it before seeing New Moon). in the middle of the visit, i had to deal with work calling over a scheduling snafu.

i spent yesterday at home, watching The Parent Trap with my parents, and then most of The Wizard of Oz with my dad. slightly-amazing development: on the way to Mass yesterday morning, my dad was the only one to remember that we were supposed to pick up my Aunt Helen; mom drove right by her apartment complex and i didn't realize anything was wrong.

i also started running again (ok, walking-really-fast-and-occasionally-jogging again). *lol* i'd started walking two miles a day last Sunday, only to fall off the wagon when work picked up on Thursday. not that it's a huge shock, considering the physicality of what i do, but there's a definite pattern between working and working out. i need my energy level back, to somehow find an accommodation there.

I'm-a feelin': content

Amazon's running a Black Friday Week sale, and there are already some damned good deals (with new ones rolling out every few hours). There are deals on kitchen items, movies, games, electronics, toys, and more. I suspect things will keep ramping up through Friday here.

Lightning deals that went active at 7AM include Blazing Saddles for $2, The Polar Express in 3-D for $5.99, and Yes Man for $5. Deals later today will include Blood Diamond, Rock Band, the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Pikman, Sex and the City, and more. And those are just today's lightning deals (note that lightning deals start at a certain time, and run for either three hours or until they sell out).

Here's a calendar of the Lightning Movie Deals for the entire week. Wall-E for $5 and Smallville seasons 1 and 2 for $10 a pop (all tomorrow) stand out, as do upcoming sales on Coraline, Casino Royale, The Office, and more. There's no calendar up for the other stores yet, but I'm assuming those deals will be comparable.

Other non-lightning deals include 50% off Watchmen movie toys and a sale on the Xbox and PS3 Slimer Editions of the Ghostbusters game, which are actually cheaper than the "normal" editions (and under $30).

The Black Friday DVD Store includes Slumdog Millionaire for $7.99, John Adams for $20.99, Planet Earth for $30.49 (40.99 for Blu-Ray), the MGM Marx Brothers Collection for $17.99, and TV items including True Blood, The Closer, Gilmore Girls, Supernatural, The Wire (complete series for $121!), The Simpsons, Doctor Who, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and more.

But wait, there's more! Amazon's also giving away a no-strings-attached $3 in MP3 credit. Just follow that link, click on the button, and you've got a $3 MP3 credit sitting in your account. And as a part of the MP3 sale, there are 500 $5 MP3 albums in the store now, covering new and classic albums by artists in all genres.

So in case you've managed to miss the news (I sometimes wish I'd managed to miss the news), Harlequin Romance has formed a new self-publishing imprint, Harlequin Horizons, and people are ticked off about it. By "people," I mean "the Romance Writers of America, the Science Fiction Writers of America, and writers here, there, and everywhere." The basic deal is this: you give Harlequin Horizons a substantial chunk of cash, and they will print your book. Oh, and if it's drop-dead awesome enough, they may allow you to sell it to them later (although they won't give you back your money at that point). In the meanwhile, you, too, can be a Harlequin author. Whee!

Watching reactions to this around the Internet has been fascinating, because there are a substantial number of people who don't understand why the community of authors is generally so upset. Unless, of course, we're just trying to keep ordinary people from discovering how easy and fun it is to write novels, and how quick you can get famous once you get past The Man who's been guarding the front gate. What they're overlooking is a set of rather nasty complexities attendant on the idea of this model.

With self-publishing, you must be able to pay to play. Being a first-time author is highly unlikely to make anyone wealthy unless they're already a celebrity. I don't know how much Stephanie Meyer got paid for Twilight, but I'll bet you she wasn't quitting her day job until the royalty statements started coming in. Under the normal model, your publisher pays you. That means that it cost me nothing but time to write Rosemary and Rue. Under the self-publishing model, it would have started off by costing me about six thousand dollars, and that doesn't include any sort of promotion, publicity, or advertising.

Writing is not an unskilled profession. Before you assume I'm saying that if you aren't published, you can't write, please hear me out. Like any creative profession, being a writer takes certain learned tools (a functional grasp of a language, for starters), combined with talent and lots and lots of practice. It's a weird cocktail, and the most intrinsically talented writers in the world still need all three components. How do you get practice? By writing, and by being forced to be critical with your own work. When I first wrote Rosemary and Rue, it was the best thing I'd ever written. By the time I finished rewriting it for publication, it was ten times better, and the first draft had become actively embarrassing. Does using publication as the gold ring work for everyone? No. There are some truly amazing authors who have never been published, either because they're writing things viewed as non-commercial, or because they just don't feel like taking the time. But for most of us, the need to improve in order to achieve publication is a lot of what actually drives our improvement. Taking that away is like saying "okay, you've read a bunch of anatomy books, now take out this woman's spleen."

It takes a village to raise a child. People involved with getting Rosemary and Rue to a bookstore near you: me. My agent. My editor. My publicist. My line-editor. My layout and graphic designers. My cover artist. The entire marketing team at Penguin. The guy who sold all of the above their coffee. People I had to pay for their help: the guy who sold us the coffee. People who knew more about what it takes to make a book successful than I do: everyone but the guy who sold us the coffee (and that's a guess; he may be a former publishing mastermind who just likes the smell of java). It takes an army of people to get a book from manuscript to market, and while you can potentially fill all those roles yourself, if you're not independently wealthy, it's going to be really, really hard. I thought I was pretty savvy about how publishing works; then I published a book. It turns out that what I knew was vague and superficial—now we're at "okay, you've watched a bunch of medical shows, now take out this woman's spleen."

We cannot be our own quality control with absolute accuracy. "But wait," you may cry, "it works in the fanfic mines." "Yes, that's true," I would reply, "but in the fanfic mines, you can edit your work for free." Once you expand to novel-length, the chance for errors expands exponentially, and once you've paid someone to put your book in print, your ability to fix them drops like a rock. Consider the number of errors in the average full-length published novel. Now consider the village that played whack-a-mole with the book before you ever saw it. Being expected to be so perfect that you don't need editing isn't just unfair; it borders on actively mean.

Now, all of these points may seem like they're anti-self-publishing, and the thing is, they both are and aren't. There are totally legitimate reasons to self-publish. Maybe you have six thousand dollars to spare, and you just don't like Disneyworld that much. Maybe you're printing a book of short stories written twenty years ago by your high school writer's group. Maybe you have a huge pre-existing Internet following (Monster Island and John Dies at the End, for example, although these were both small press, not self-published). Maybe you just want a printed edition of your grandmother's cookbook. Whatever makes you happy! Most comic books are self-published, and it works out fine for them (although most self-publishing comic creators also form their own imprints).

At the same time, taking aspiring authors and effectively telling them "you don't need to work to improve and learn, you don't have to deal with rejection and unwanted critique, you don't need to do anything but sign the check" is just...it's mean. It's preying on the vulnerability of young authors who don't want anything but to see their works in print. Sadly, most self-published books will never reach a wide audience; they aren't on the shelves in brick-and-mortar stores, they aren't in print advertising (unless you're really independently wealthy), they won't be sending advance copies out for review. They'll just appear in a catalog somewhere, and on the author's website, where the number of copies sold will depend on just how fast the author can tap-dance for the amusement of the masses. By adding the name of a big house to a self-publishing imprint, and the seductive offer of "maybe we'll buy it after all," Harlequin is effectively monetizing their slush pile, and potentially taking the opportunity to grow away from a great many of the aspiring authors involved.

If I had self-published ten years ago, I would never have improved enough as an author to write Feed, or Late Eclipses, or Discount Armageddon, or Lycanthropy and Other Personal Issues. Now, your mileage may vary. But these are my concerns, and these are the reasons that I really think that this sort of "business venture" is just another way of preying on the vulnerable.

Tags: advice, contemplation, cranky blonde is cranky, writing
I'm-a feelin': annoyed
I'm a-hearin': Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance."

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/lb7qeC3JqgA/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=211994

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/020996.html

Mom to little girl punching her in the butt on their way out of the bank: Don't you hit me! What's wrong with you?
Girl, whining: But I want my own money.
Mom: Well, you don't have a checking account now, do you?

--56th St & Broadway

Overheard by: Nikki G

http://www.cartoonlabs.com/comics/index.php?date=2009-11-23&show=sinfest

Sinfest
Tatsuya Ishida

• Mystery Google - You get what the person before you searched for.
  So go leave surprises for people!
  (tags: google search funny social)
• What percentage of men are rapists, and what is their MO?
  violent stranger rape seems to be almost unknown - it's mostly drugging of strangers or violence against acquaintances.
  (tags: rape statistics violence women crime sex)
• New Indian brides abandoned by British Asian husbands
  (tags: marriage society uk india)
• Russia 'is now a criminal state'
  (tags: russia crime corruption)
• Would you keep 3 pounds from a broken machine?
  (tags: ethics morals)
• A GTA coder discusses violence and computer games. With a crazy person.
  (tags: computer_games violence funny)
• In case you were wondering what Obama's been up to...
  Not that I'm _completely_ fed up with people complaining that he's done nothing since being elected...
  (tags: obama politics usa)

Tags: delicious glue, links

I went to go see 2012 last night. It just might be the greatest movie of all time. I really didn't think The Day After Tomorrow could be bested so thoroughly. Note: a flask was involved in our viewing, a precaution I highly recommend. Sometimes suspension of belief needs some help.

If you haven't seen it, this remix of the trailer really gets you in the correct mood. (Though the version with the effects shots removed is also priceless.)

A couple of comments, though. Some spoilers will be included.

Do not see it if you can't handle horribly bad science in the name of disaster porn. It has mutating neutrinos which melt the Earth's core. Seriously. Also, the entire crust rotates about the core by 23 degrees, which somehow puts Wisconsin at the new pole. Which, okay, but Wisconsin wasn't at 67 degrees to begin with.

Why the hell didn't they tell anyone? I mean, given two year's warning I could build my own Ark. Okay, maybe it would get eaten by a chasm before the final floods, or blown up by a new volcano or something, but give me a fighting chance! It would be a great project.

It fails the Bechdel test so hard. I probably wouldn't have noticed (yes, hello there privilege) if it hadn't made an explicit point that all the decisions of our fleeing group of refugees were being made by just the men. As in, twice there was a line "You better get the other men in here" (paraphrased). WTF?

And once again, Emmerich ends a film with the (remnants) of the US taking refuge in the third world. Which I hope is intended in a cute role-reversal kind of way, but always ends up feeling creepy to me. "Graciously accepting" us my ass. Maybe after we nuke Mexico City. I won't give away the weird twist at the end of 2012, but let's just say it has some serious colonial overtones.

Did you love the Dick Cheney analog in Day After Tomorrow? Well, 2012 has Obama, Rahm Emmanuel, Angela Merkel, Silvio Berlusconi, Hu Jintao and Grand Moff Tarkin. Let me tell you, making snide comments about Berlusconi alone was worth the price of admission. He decides to go down with his country (snerk), but I'm pretty sure he was actually safe on his gold-plated penis-shaped Learjet.

Most amazing thing of all: Wikipedia tells me there are plans for a spinoff TV series. I'm thrilled! I'm... I'm stoked.

Cheers to autodidactic.