Hi all, I'm putting together a fat-positive (and possibly allies?) group for a beginning belly dance class with Nadira Jamal, who teaches in Union Square, Somerville. Her Web site is very clear that her classes are open to people of all sizes, but her upcoming intro class wasn't at a time I could do, and I thought I would try and put together a class specifically for fatties.
She has offered me Mondays, 6-7pm starting June 24th, for 10 weeks. The cost would be $140 per student. I need a firm commitment from at least 6 people to hold the class.
If you are interested, please PM me with your email address. Thanks!
I never actually wanted to own anything. I don't desire to actually have anything that _belongs_ to me. What I want is access to things. So once movies are available on demand, music is streamable, and books are electronic, I can get rid of all of the actual physical objects and reclaim a bunch of wall/shelf space for decorative purposes.
And so this lot were picked up today and taken to Shelter:
Leaving my shelves looking like this:
Still remaining: Graphic novels, reference books, and some things I couldn't quite bear to get rid of (like the Narnia books).
There were spiders dropping down from the ceiling and into my wife’s cleavage. The wall behind her was a huge, stretched expanse of hairy green flesh, breathing slowly in and out. Phantom janitors stole in and out at the edges of my vision, sweeping in places they could not possibly stand and then vanishing when I tried to talk to them.
And my response was, “Oh. That’s interesting, what my brain is doing.”
These ridiculous hallucinations happened during my extremely traumatic 52-hour post-surgery recovery phase, when I was in tremendous pain and could not sleep. And yet, I think about the only other time I hallucinated, having dropped acid on a very hot summer’s night… and I found it disappointing. Yes, my vision was flexing and distorting, and I witnessed all sorts of curious artifacts as my brain’s visual processing center went into overload – but I quietly dissected each illusion, breaking it down into its interesting components, and in such a way I reduced what could have been a wild trip down into a series of interesting quirks.
I don’t really hallucinate, I don’t think. I know what my brain is up to. And today, I realized why:
It’s because I’m a depressive. I don’t trust my brain.
My brain has been a chronic liar for years, telling me how everyone hates me (when they don’t), how I’ve never accomplished anything of any note (I have), and how the world would be better off if I just killed myself (unproven, but I use the other two false conclusions to keep that one in the “bad idea” zone). I live a very strict life of having to double-check every input my brain gives me, for it routinely distorts a mundane “Oh!” into an encoded “You suck, Steinmetz, everything you ever liked was a fraud.” If I don’t, well, I ruin my life.
So when my brain starts providing false visual information, I do the same thing: I question it. I compare it to reality. And if it doesn’t make sense, I ignore it.
This makes me a little sad. I mean, it did protect me from a full-fledged freakout when I was in the hospital… but it means that while others experience an exultant joy with acid and peyote and other crazy drugs, seeing the face of God, I’ll never be able to flow with that illusion. They can trust what their brains give them, accepting most inputs safely and without harm, and so when some external source causes the brain to deliver crazy input, they can just run amuck with it like a kid whirling on a playground.
I’m off to the side. Analyzing. Breaking it down. Questioning relentlessly. Because that’s my survival. That’s what I do.
There are so many bullshit conspiracy theories being tossed about with the internet and Alex Jones that it almost seems crazy to be suspicious of something that could very well be a conspiracy. But the death of Ibragim Todashev really makes no sense. I mean, I don't know the guy, so he could have been pushed into confessing to a triple homicide that linked him and the Boston marathon bomber. He could have outright said that he did it and then made a move on the FBI agents only to get shot in the process. This is all very possible.
But improbable. More probable is the FBI agent getting pissed at the guy and shooting him and then writing an official report that clears a baffling homicide, puts him in a hero position for two major trials and then stabs himself to make it look good.
Makes sense especially since Ibragim Todashev's friends said that he was getting afraid of the questions.
Now I'm not going to say it's one way or the other. I don't know. However, unlike 911 Truth or Obama is a Nigerian or Aaron Burr had Merriwether Lewis killed to stop him from narking on him, this is not an elaborate conspiracy that requires years of planning and thousands of people keeping silent about "the truth" (or at least neglecting to tell Alex Jones that he's really correct in his insanity). It requires one FBI guy and his partners going "Ok, fuck it. This guy is probably guilty and if you don't back me up, how can anyone ever trust you again?" and a case clearance.
Oh hell, Ibragim Todashev could have killed himself and the FBI guys could have just decided to close a case that they were 90% certain that he did anyhow.
Another long time follower, first time poster. I made my first trip to the pool in I can't even remember how long today. I mostly just wanted a chance to try out the swimsuit I just got in! I really love it.
I picked this specific suit for it's chest coverage and support and I'm definitely happy with those aspects. My old swimsuit was from Target/Merona and the cups were just not big enough for my DDs. It was also my first and last halter top. Oh, my aching neck. This top was offered in regular and DD. I'm wearing the DD and it's quite adequate for the girls. The empire band under the chest is wider than in my old Merona suit and the racer back straps provide nice support. I felt very comfy and secure swimming laps. I've got a trip booked to the beach in a few weeks and I can't wait! Hopefully, I will no longer have to be paranoid about a big wave making me accidentally flash the whole beach.
Not to just echo Lesley, but I'm so in love with swimsuitsforall.com . They have such a great selection with designs that are modern and young, much better than what's offered Lands End or any other place I've looked at. The first top I ordered was too big and I had to exchange it for a smaller size. They have free exchange and return shipping, so I only paid the one initial shipping fee. The directions on how to get free return shipping were a little confusing and contradictory in some places, but I called their customer service line and the lady there was super nice and hooked me right up. It was about as painless as online shopping can be.
Now that I am a "dog person" I have discovered that they have these dog "happy hours" where a pet supply store will serve beer and wine while your dogs play. I went to one last night at Bark Bark Club and tonight at a store called Jameson Loves Danger. So basically getting drunk while surrounded by cute dogs, and giving "social time" to my own dog.
After socializing and drinking tonight I got ice cream at George's in Andersonville and felt very triumphant drunk, eating ice cream, and walking my adorable dog all at the same time. Life is good.
Tycho: They’re all done, and they look great. If you’ve enjoyed seeing my associate’s take on the individual characters, high quality prints are available either as a set, or individually. Kiko’s new “Scorestreak” shirt just came back from our shirt printer, and we have it for the ladies and also for manz. (CW)TB
Gabe: So before the tournament we let everyone place side bets on who among the PA staff would have the best score. All the money went right to Child’s Play and those who backed the right horse so to speak would get their names posted on the site. Well I am sad to say that Robert Khoo and his team took the honors with a score of -4. My team played hard but we only managed a -1. So here are the names of Robert’s supporters: Amber Armstrong Ben Wallis Brandi Murphy David Hanson Dwayne McDonald eric lee Jacob Rogers Jon Bankard Jonathan Serna Jordan Parker Kevin Dent Kyle Lichtenberg Liam…
Gabe: I was at the Xbox One reveal yesterday morning and overall I found it pretty disappointing. I feel like I wasn’t the target demographic for the presentation. I like to watch TV but what I like more is playing video games. I don’t care about sports games and EA has taught me over the years not to believe any of their pre-release bullshot videos. I also hate the Kinect. Every time I try to use it for playing a game or navigating the Xbox, the result is unreliable and frustrating. I like Call of Duty but their high resolution, motion captured dog and hyper intelligent fish didn’t get…
Tycho: With Gabriel’s adoption of the Surface Pro (and thus, a gaming capable PC) as a lifestyle totem, we have penetrated so far into weirdo territory that I will hear beepboops of unknown provenance over there and wonder where they’re from. We played Sanctum back in “the day,” liked it, and then interred it for some reason I don’t entirely recall. I knew the sequel was coming out, and I was gonna say we should play it, but he beat me to it. Get your head around that shit. We haven’t been able to play it for the last couple days because of…
46. Northanger Abbey graphic novel adapted by Nancy Butler and Janet Lee - I always feel like I'm missing out by being bored with the Jane Austen mania. There are works inspired by Jane Austen that I like. I thought that The Jane Austen Book Club was one of the better romantic comedies I've seen in a long time (primarily because it's about people who read books and talk about subjects that aren't The Plot) and most of the adapted movies I quite like. It's just Jane Austen books themselves that bore me to tears. And being caught in the Orthodox Jewish community where no one dates for fun and everyone dates for marriage (according to the official party line) I should be totally seeing the point of these books. Hell, one friend bored me at a party about how she and her friend came up with a way of ascribing Jane Austen characters to frum girls in the frum community. I imagine that I would have found the conversation a little less odious if the "friend" wasn't most likely my ex-girlfriend.
But I went into Northanger Abbey the comic book thinking that I could get over my innate dislike of most Jane Austen books (actually I think I was relatively entertained by Persuasion) and there is nothing here that a Jane Austen fan can't like. The artwork is amazing. The movement through the story is fast enough. It's just that the source material is crap. It's still all the drinking tea and "oh what family are you from" material.
And maybe there's a personal dislike here. Maybe it's like the Delaney book where current dating mores are bothering me but this time it's the Orthodox Jewish ones which I originally embraced after coming off a 4 year relationship that never advanced beyond the stage where we would have our own apartments but stay over (the Woody Allen-Mia Farrow stage?) and never move in together or get married. So I wanted a relationship that wasn't 2 years of fun and two years of waiting for a replacement. But Orthodox Jewish dating is job interviewing. You have to go on dates and spend most of your time answering questions like "do you have any brothers or sisters?" and "What do your parents do for a living?" and seriously, I don't like to say that I'm a convert because it's a boring story. Ok, it's not a boring story but it's a story that can't be told well in the 5-10 minutes allotted.
But I really think that I just don't like Jane Austen. And I know that some people love her. But I can't really love a book where everything is underhanded and obsessed with marriage. Of course, Northanger Abbey is acknowledged as the terrible first book but even then it has all the Jane Austen tropes that bore me so much in other narratives.
So I've been thinking about how I'd do an audio drama again, and let me start with some standard disclaimers: this isn't a reaction to how anyone else does it past or present, or a swipe at anyone, nor did I have anyone in mind when I started thinking about it -- other than Big Finish, who in fact inspired a fair amount of the thinking in a positive way, so good for them.
So. Let us assume that I had a concept, and that it was for an indefinitely running audio program. Let us also assume that I do not have an established professional business -- so this at least starts as an amateur model. Here is what I would do, with the goal of producing a generally strong audio show, capitalizing on my strengths and papering over my weaknesses:
I would appoint myself as producer and show runner, head writer, whatever you want to call it. The former means that I would provide resources; it doesn't mean that I'd lift a finger otherwise -- this will have plenty of jobs, although let's call them roles, and I might well fill some of them as well, but producer means I provide resources. Head writer means that I write some of the episodes, and that other people write some of the episodes, collaboratively or solo, except to the extent they are all collaborating with me, if you see what I mean. Show runner's a concept fandom's pretty solid on right now, I suppose, except how they appear to sometimes think it means "irreplaceable Messiah" which, well, getting off topic.
Every episode would have a different director (or audio engineer, or whatever you choose to call it) than the previous. Due to how hard it is to find people willing to put the time into this that have any business doing so, it'd probably be a few people, rotating, but doesn't matter -- the point is that we want production to overlap to avoid cascade schedule failure, and also we avoid killing the directors (unless we strangle them for being difficult, but... separate topic.) Does this impact consistency? Perhaps, but hello, I'm the producer and I'm involved in the final edits.
Side thought: It would be useful if the show was actually episodic enough that I could conceivably have some inventory episodes for when everything falls over. Got that one from the comics industry. Untold tales, whatever. It'd depend on the nature of the show.
As I say, I'd farm out some scripts -- the larger plot would be mine (and I'd surely write some of the scripts) but I'd take pitches for "i want to write an episode about this" and then we'd work on the shopping list of what needs to be in it. When I was script proofing for Darker Projects' Doctor Who, I believe this is more or less what they were doing. (I think they only had the one director, though.) And yes, a script editor would be pretty important here. Even folks who have a good notion and write acceptable dialogue and such can get tied up in some of the peculiarities of audio -- you can't just see where someone is now, you need to say names more, etc etc.
Actors would make an agreement when cast as to how long they had to get first recordings of lines recorded and turned in. It would not be long. Because we record in isolation, not only from the other actors (which some of the big boys like Big Finish do, by the way) but also from any production staff, it's best to just expect that the first batch of lines won't be the last. There will be retakes. Also, giving people too long to do it basically ensures they'll forget about it and will do it at the last second anyway, with few exceptions. Anyway. Relevantly, main cast would be kept reasonable. Scenes with more than 3 people in them would be rare. The last time I wrote for audio, the average number of characters in a given episode was 8, including the tiniest one-line bit parts. The main cast consisted of 4 people plus a couple of regularly recurring antagonists. So like that.
Music would be very minimalist. And scored for the episode. No, I'm serious. The aforementioned director wouldn't have to deal with it.
Anyway... that's how I'd do it. One show, lots of people involved (any or all of the above could well have assistants, but that's up to them to work out; we'd of course need to know for credit purposes), pursuing a high quality result with a regular release schedule. If it ever grew from there, it'd be shows with their own show runners and me as producer -- we'd both be involved in final edits with the director, but my part would just be to say "whoa, you can't do that" or "this doesn't sound good enough" or, hopefully most of the time, "sounds great, if the show runner's happy I'm happy."
The aforementioned thinking out loud should not be construed as an intent to ever do any of it. The ideas are stolen with both hands from existing houses, TV, comics... pretty much any serial media I've had contact with and learned anything about how they're organized. And personal experience, such as it is, of course.
There, now it's out of my head. I may edit this based on later thoughts or discussions, but then again, I may not.
This movie is called The Abba Movie and it does have Abba concert footage with all the songs, but it's also trying to have a plot. I think that their referencing of the Beatles movies shows what they are trying to do here, but the plot is about a creepy reporter who walks around in red bikini bottoms more than anyone should ever walk around in red bikini bottoms and just keeps missing them. He doesn't have his press pass in one scene. In another scene he wakes up late and yells at the front desk at the hotel. Even though he actually has a right to be a jerk in that case (hotels have wake-up service for a reason) he seems like the one in the wrong.
I don't know if we are supposed to sympathize with him when he interviews Abba fans who just say that they are "clean" and not all dirty like most rock stars from the 1970s. Granted, there's a novelty in a rock band that isn't routinely snorting cocaine off of each other's butts but I don't know what that's a selling point. I imagine it would have been a selling point for me when I was a kid and quite enamored with that whole record burning movement. That was the point when I said that I liked "Light Rock" and then when I was a teenager listening to metal I would have hated them for the same reason.
Oh, so there's a happy ending where the reporter runs into them on an elevator and they sing some forgotten song about flying like an eagle (not one of the ones that was pushed in Australian movies) and now I think he has broken his tape deck or something.
Notes:2-4. Note the plural forms. 7. Unattested. 10. Actually a different subspecies, but near enough that rapini is sold under this name in Chinese markets.
I've had a bit of a bad conscience about the rapini I sowed in my neighbour's plot back when I thought it would soon be mine, but that was put to rest with this e-mail:
you can keep the rapini in my plot as long as i get to harvest from it. i just realized that it's either the same or really similar to broccoli rabé and i really like broccoli rabé.
It is flourishing quite nicely; yesterday we got our first blooms. Normally with greens, that's the point at which I would sigh and rip it all up for the compost, but it seems rapini doesn't go all bitter when it flowers. At least I guess we'll all find out.
Ben Kuchera: The Xbox One is a console that’s likely to kill our idea of what a physical game purchase means. According to a story published on Wired, each game will be installed to your hard drive, and you can then play without the disc in the drive. What happens if you pass the disc to a friend? Well, that’s where things get interesting. “In other words, what happens to our traditional concept of a “used game”? This is a question for which Microsoft did not yet have an answer, and is surely something that game buyers (as well as renters and lenders) will want to…
I have coastered so many coasters now! Smug smug smug.
Monday we went to animal kingdom and I rode Expedition Everest 6 or 7 times. I think Amy got up to 15 times, but Patty and I switched to riding the lunch and nap ride after a while.
Entering any of the theme parks, there's a stop while they search your bag halfheartedly, like at a stadium rock concert.
Boy ahead of me in line: Why do they have to do this anyway! What are they looking for! Security guard: Oh, well, I have to look for mousetraps, poison apples, that sort of thing.
Hee hee hee. I think I napped more than half of Monday, and why not, followed by dinner in the Acoustic Torture Chamber where sound engineers go to cry very audibly in to their excellent steak.
Yesterday Amy and I went to Sea World with Planet Crowell. Sea World was GREAT! I was... not expecting that! We went to the San Diego Sea World last year and it was a super creepy animal sparkle conveyor belt. The Orlando one has a little of that but has more to do and bigger, better cared for animal exhibits where you get the idea the vet staff can sleep at night. And they have two realllllly nice B&M coasters! I rode Manta, which is a flying coaster, once. A flying coaster flips you around so you are lying down and go through all the loopies like you're superman. Then we went to ride Kraken once, as a token thing, before going back to Manta, except OH MY GOD KRAKEN IS THE BEST COASTER EVER IT IS SO PERFECT I CAN'T EVEN. It's SO MUCH FUN. It inverts you eight times, there are tunnels, and it is just MASTERFULLY put together, you never have your head boxed, you never lose your lunch, it's just this perfect, FAST, I'm a sock in the dryer feeling while you flip around and around and we rode it six times and would have ridden it TWELVE times except thunderstorms kept shutting the ride down. Mary and Wes rode them too! Mary with a serene look on her face, and Wesley looking like a caged animal was dying behind his glasses as he clung grimly to the deathharness we had somehow talked him in to. I'm sorry, Wesley! Fake sorry! ish! He bought a t-shirt which I think he might mount on the wall as one does the antlers of a dangerous hunting success. Young Simon, Style Scarecrow the the Stars, skipped the coasters to pose for magazine covers, as one does. We fed manta rays! WHICH IS PRETTY GREAT. They are adorable vacuum tongue puppies only pretend that didn't sound gross, yes? Yes. And we had lunch in the shark tank! Well next to the shark tank! There were proximal sharks is what I'm saying.
After Sea World we booted it back to the disney plantation to go to Be Our Guest, the new Beauty and the Beast restaurant. After having "African-inspired" cuisine at Animal Kingdom I was all ready to disdain a French restaurant at Disney, but they had some seriously legit mustard and I repent me of my calumny and accept this charcuterie platter as a token of peace between our peoples.
I was sooooo done after dinner and left the park to go have allllll of the showers, which turned out to be very wise as I missed the crowd nonsense my roommates staggered through. I went to go knit and watch people fold laundry, which made me very happy after a week of HELLO THEME PARK 100% MAGIC BARBECUE MOUNTAIN EXPLOSION FANTASY LAND TOWN EXPERIENCE. <3
Now I am drinking coffee in the food court and I think I have decided to go back to the room, get my knitting, and wander the parks as a tourist Madame DeFarge, although PROBABLY I won't encounter any guillotines. Magical guillotines.
Coming home tomorrow! I have had a lovely sunny time but I need to see my beanpie soon. He has a new haircut from Auntie Brenna! Can't wait to come snuggle you and Tobycat, kiddo.
Amazon is working with WB to publish (read: sell) fanfiction from the Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries 'verses. And they said that more "worlds" will be announced soon.
Basically, fanfic writers will be able to sell their fics - formatted for Kindle - via Amazon, and the restrictions are not as massive as you'd think!
No crossovers.
No excessive product placement for non-show brands.
No porn.
But here's the thing about porn! Amazon says they don't allow porn to be sold on their site, so as long as your fic content is no more explicit than anything that's on Amazon's site today (see: 50 Shades and anything in the erotica category) then it won't run afoul of Amazon's content restrictions - and if they say it does, then the Internet will stand behind you as if you were a Nutella fan barred from celebrating its wonderful tastiness.
HOWEVER, each World Licensor will be providing "Content Guidelines" for their specific 'verse - and I can't find those anywhere. THAT might make a significant impact on what types of fanfic one can and cannot sell, but until we've had a chance to look through them, we can't determine the specifics.
I don't think it's realistic to be concerned that the existence of Kindle Worlds will mean that tv show/film/book creators will stamp out freely given fics. At this point, Kindle Worlds will only accept things over 5000 words, anyway, and the longstanding laches issue that protects fics posted elsewhere and given away will still hold.
However, it does mean that people who write in the fandoms covered by Kindle Worlds and sell ebooks of those stories outside of the Kindle license may find themselves dealing with cease & desist letters. But there was always a chance they would because of the commercial aspect of that action.
Also, this will leave fandom with a lot of questions on issues other than legality be on fan-created gift culture, commissions, fundraising for charity, or even the ability of pro writers to write in other universes>
Does this further "legitimize" fan creativity (which I think has long been a pretty legit hobby), will it just create an additional outlet for story distribution, and what other fandoms will WB add?
I wouldn't be shocked if they bring Tomorrow People into this as the show launches in the fall, but what about things that are ending their runs like Nikita, or shows with massive fanbases and almost a decade of fan creativity, like the behemoth that is Supernatural?
Oh, and here't the royalty-related info:
Amazon Publishing will pay royalties to the rights holder for the World (we call them World Licensors) and to the Fic Author. Fic Author's standard royalty rate for works of at least 10,000 words will be 35% of net revenue.
In addition, with the launch of Kindle Worlds, Amazon Publishing will pilot an experimental new program for particularly short works (between 5,000 and 10,000 words). For these short stories—typically priced under one dollar—Amazon will pay the royalties for the World Licensor and will pay authors a digital royalty of 20% of net revenue. The lower royalty for these shorter works is due to significantly higher fixed costs per digital copy (for example, credit-card fees) when prices for the entire class of content will likely be under one dollar.
Now, I want to be very clear - I think the possible impacts of this are serious and significant and will change fandom massively - but I'm not sure that it gives any rightsholders any additional rights/chances/ability to go after anyone who's giving their fic away for free - at least not in the US, under current IP law.
Once again, we come to a rushed day where I cannot churn out a full blog entry. And yet I feel like interacting! And so I return to the gift that keeps on giving:
Ask me one question, on any topic. I shall answer truthfully.
(Please. No woodchuck questions. Someone always asks, and it’s never gotten a good response.)
So, I hit Ocean State Job Lot on my way home from work yesterday, and on a whim I bought a $3 jar of caviar and decided to have a caviar omelet for dinner (since 'song's out of town, cooking eggs wouldn't be a problem).
The thing I hadn't realized is that it was black capelin caviar.
Most of the traditional caviars are black, so I didn't really question that this one was, too. But capelin caviar is normally orange (like a tiny version of salmon roe).
Which means it was dyed.
So when the caviar hit the hot and somewhat moist eggs, the dyes ran. Leading to a green and blue omelet. Fortunately, it tasted just fine, but that's definitely a lesson learned. I also chose to not let Max lick the plate (in spite of his not-so-polite requests to do so), as I've got no idea how healthy those dyes would be for a kitty. I hate depriving the cat of seafood or eggs (although I don't hate it as much as he does), but better safe than sorry.
But yeah, cheap caviar = dyed. Which is silly, as orange caviar doesn't look any grosser than black caviar. Also, the omelet was delicious.
(Incidentally, it was a jar of this caviar; for $3 instead of the $8+/jar they're charging online, I'm just fine with it.)
I always loved khachapuri, this incredibly Georgian pastry filled with cheese. Especially the Adjarian version, which is shaped as a boat and holds a gently cooked egg over the melted cheese. Khachapuri cafe is one of my favorite Georgian places in Moscow and a couple of days ago I got lucky to learn to make khachapuri from their chefs. It turned our absolutely doable at home, which felt like magic. Read more...
I'm very glad glutenfree is the monthly theme. It's great to see some new recipes! I only have this one, and I'm afraid I enjoy it so much that I never really bother to try something new when baking for gluten intolerant people. It's very simple to make, and it tastes really light and fresh, it's perfect for summer! Or actually any time. Right now, spring apparantly means 12 degrees celcius and rain.. And I could definitely do with a slice of this cake. Just to remind me of sunshine.
Well, it's not every day you wake up with a different heart beat.That is, quite literally, how it felt when i groggily came to as they were wrapping up things up my Cardiac Ablation procedure on Tuesday last week. Before the operation, i could feel my heart beating in my chest as a regular thudding that was, well, just normal for me. When i woke up, i couldn't feel that anymore. My chest was really... calm. I didn't freak out about that or anything...
I got Gambit from a strange set of circumstances. My friend Jered tried to set me up with a woman that he thought I would like because I think we were both pro-Israel and converts. I think that was his reasoning. Apparently I knew her from LJ and her name was something like Jennifer Ray but she changed it to something Jewish (even though she never converted and she's the kind of person that gets blocked from conversion under the "it might be a side effect of the anti-psychotics" standard. I know it's unfair but there are enough crazy Jews in the world without importing some) and I pretty much saw no potential for that in the beginning. Yes, I know that it is unfair to judge someone based on mental illness, but when someone says that she's on medical leave and gets money from the state for mental illness, it's a little more serious than I am capable of dealing with.
But she was friends with a pet rescue place in Pennsylvania and they were trying to get Gambit adopted. Gambit is a two year old tabby who was abused. He got along great with Socrates until Socrates died. Socrates didn't fight him off, but Socrates was old and tired. He's making an effort with the rest of the cats.
Even better, by the time I was looking to adopt Gambit, Jennifer Ray was getting steadily more annoying. It's like I couldn't be on FB without her commenting on every single thing I wrote. Most of the time she was speaking in cliches but a lot of it was just nothing. A week before I was supposed to get Gambit, she took offense with my non-sadness at Aaron Swartz's death. So she wrote to Karen stating that I was making jokes about suicide (I kind of was) and that she couldn't recommend me for Gambit. So I got a couple other friends to recommend me. Karen stopped working with Jennifer Ray and I had the reason I needed to block the woman. If I just blocked the woman without the backstabbing, I would have felt bad about it.
So Gambit is still not coming up to me. He is really good at running away. For the first month, he was hiding in the box spring (Willamena is in the box spring now) but he started to get out and walk around. I am actually sorry for him concerning Socrate's death since he liked Socrates (it was hard not to like Socrates) and he wasn't afraid of him as he is of the other cat.
It's a slow process. Gambit has a lot of trust issues and he's not entirely jibing with the other cats (I actually got the other cats sooner than later due to the fact that Gambit was not going to cozy up to me for a long time and he needed the company as well). But now I have a cat toy which is a fake tail on a stick.
If he's sufficiently calm, I can get him to play with it when I'm holding it (he plays with other cat toys away from me) and if I am lucky, I can pet him with the fake cat tail. He's becoming more comfortable with me, but he's still running away. Hopefully, he will get over it, but whomever abused him did a great job of fucking him up. I hope the former owner has died in a nasty fire by now.
In equally annoying health news, I went to an allergist today and described my reactions to perfumes and flavorings. Her conclusion is that I'm essentially getting contact dermatitis on my tongue and throat when I inhale/ingest things I'm sensitive to. I noted that the problem had gotten a lot worse since I started taking the Zoloft; at first I thought it was related to the Zoloft-induced dry mouth, but that side effect has mostly gone away. However, upon Googling "contact dermatitis artificial flavor", I find this note in a case study of a woman who developed an allergic reaction to artificial cinnamon:
Contact allergies are common in the skin but rare in the mouth due to the protective role of saliva against the accumulation of allergens
Welp.
It's true that my mouth is still dry; it's just not dry enough to really bother me most of the time. In addition, the Zoloft continues to cause a bit of acid reflux, which is probably making my throat more sensitive to other irritants. Hooray! Bodies are fun.
Conclusion: once Readercon is over, plus a week to make sure there's no post-Readercon fuckery this year, I'm going to get my doctor and therapist's approval to go off the Zoloft. It's definitely been helpful, but I'm feeling a lot more settled, and most of my anxiety these days is related to--surprise!--being scared of food because I don't know when it's going to make my throat feel like it's swelling up. I keep being glad to have the Zoloft to help me deal with that, but it would be even better to not need to deal with it. In the meantime, lots and lots of peppermint candy (and a search for lemon or other citrus candies that have no artificial flavors or sweeteners, since citrus is naturally mouthwatering), and probably going back to taking Pepcid with the Zoloft.
Also conclusion: the allergist was not entirely useless, but pretty nearly. I mentioned the Zoloft dry mouth and she didn't say "It might be worth taking a closer look at that". She expressed surprise that Claritin appeared to help with the reaction but offered no suggestions for alternatives. Bah.
16 April: All the fuss of taxes has left me just plain tired. I’m unable to settle into anything serious, so decide to take the day off. We go dump trash, poke around the empty and sad host station, and that’s about it. It’s a breezy day, with sand blowing left, right and center.
Today’s photo shows one of DH’s projects; he’s added little wheels to the back of our rig. After we trashed our tail a few times and lost the protective scrapers, we’ve had nothing between us and losing our bathroom on a too-steep driveway some day. So, these should help.
This was cross-posted from Raven's Roads. You can comment here or there, but if you could bring yourself to comment there rather than here, that would be very nice.
Here's the link to comment over there
Hi all! I got these swim shorts from Land's End recently, and they are blousier (not a word, I know) than I was expecting. I was hoping for something a little more form-fitting. Does anyone know where I can get something like bike shorts but in swimsuit material? I have cute thighs and want to show them off without having to remove too many hairs. ;) I would probably wear a 16/18 or 1X. Shipping to U.S.is a must, and I've love to pay $30 or less shipped. Thanks!
Here is my RANKING of THE FLASHMAN PAPERS, George MacDonald Fraser's eleven novels and three short stories about a 19th century British Army officer named Harry Flashman.
A dream from last night ever-so-slightly too long for Twitter:
Queen Elizabeth had died and a young princess was being crowned Queen Anne. She was certainly not a princess that actually exists in real life. Long, lovely black hair that she wore down for the occasion, swept over her shoulder and flowing down the front of her white dress, obscuring all the medals and sash. She had thin silver crown.
I was a flutist playing in the orchestra for the coronation. Anne started crying in the middle of her coronation speech. A crowd of ministers with pelican heads rushed to console her and guide her away from the crowds. We had to stop playing and wait for her to return. But she didn't.
Ages went by. We finally started playing just to entertain everyone, anything we could think of. Then no one could think of another song and we all got up and started dancing with our instruments and each other on the floor of Westminster Cathedral until the flute section all turned into crows and flew up to roost on the buttresses. Anne was hiding up there, too. Her black hair flowed under her gown to become big black wings.
A dream from last night ever-so-slightly too long for Twitter:
Queen Elizabeth had died and a young princess was being crowned Queen Anne. She was certainly not a princess that actually exists in real life. Long, lovely black hair that she wore down for the occasion, swept over her shoulder and flowing down the front of her white dress, obscuring all the medals and sash. She had thin silver crown. I was a flutist playing in the orchestra for the coronation.
Anne started crying in the middle of her coronation speech. A crowd of ministers with pelican heads rushed to console her and guide her away from the crowds. We had to stop playing and wait for her to return. But she didn’t.
Ages went by. We finally started playing just to entertain everyone, anything we could think of. Then no one could think of another song and we all got up and started dancing with our instruments and each other on the floor of Westminster Cathedral until the flute section all turned into crows and flew up to roost on the buttresses. Anne was hiding up there, too. Her black hair flowed under her gown to become big black wings.
And then: alarm clock.
Mirrored from cmv.com. Also appearing on @LJ and @DW. Read anywhere, comment anywhere.
I'm thrilled to announce the cover and existence of my next collection of short fiction: The Melancholy of Mechagirl, from VIZ media, and my awesome editor nihilistic_kid.
This is a unique collection--while Ventriloquism was a general collection of everything ever, Mechagirl brings together all my Japanese-themed short fiction. That turns out to be rather a lot. Some, or perhaps even most of you, know that I lived in Japan for several years and the experience had a profound effect on my work. I'm very excited to have all of it in one place, and with such an amazing cover and team behind it. I mean seriously, just look at that cover!
It'll be out in July and is available for pre-order now. There's also a brand new novelette called Ink, Water, Milk in it, along with some other rare, out of print, or new pieces. It'll also be simultaneously published in Japanese, which is very exciting for me.
Now, there's an elephant in the room, and even if you don't see it, I do, so I'm going to go poke it in the trunk.
Yes, this is a collection of fiction about Japan written by a white woman. Yes, that white woman lived in Japan because of the US Navy and her ex-husband being an officer in said organization and that is not a value-free situation. Culturally, it is quite, quite fraught. And when VIZ first approached me concerning this project, their first from a non-Japanese author, I didn't know what to think, whether it was the right thing to do. I have always tried (and it's not even close to my place to say if I've succeeded) to write about Japan with respect and quality and sensitivity to the fact that I am obviously and forever an outsider. Nevertheless, it was a period in my life that had a profound and indelible effect on me, and in writing about it I have always been trying to integrate and interrogate my own experience, both from within and without, without being overly kind to myself and my culpability or overly romantic or unforgivably ignorant or bullheaded concerning Japanese culture. That is always an iterative process. You circle the thing itself endlessly and never quite arrive at it. I could not have helped writing about Japan, it was always only a question of how I wrote about it, and I hope, I hope I have done well.
And ultimately, what decided me was that a Japanese publisher thought I did at least well enough to ask for this collection and put their weight behind it. And if I wrote these stories to begin with, I should be willing to stand by them as a body of work. This is a very personal book, full of feels, as the kids say these days. It is not a book that purports to speak for Japanese culture in any way, but one which speaks for its author, for a span of ten years of circling Japan and never reaching it, and a single woman's relationship with a nation not her own, but one which, very occasionally, sat down to tea with her.
Here's hoping you enjoy it. (And stay tuned for another collection post shortly! My new general collection, The Bread We Eat in Dreams, is coming out in December!)
At least until Saturday. Anne and I think it rocks -- good voice acting, fast-moving tight script, good animation, Black Widow's cheekbones -- what else do you want?
This entry was originally posted at http://filkertom.dreamwidth.org/1622357.html. You may comment there or here, although LJ tends to have a livelier conversation at this time.
Working on commissions, getting ready for Heroes Con, trying to catch up while working on pitches. Some new drawings and sketch cards have been listed on eBay, others will be available at Heroes Con.
Although I guess it's anachronistic to talk about "thunderstorm season" any more now that we regularly experience "thundersnow" in January, that's what it felt like had finally arrived this past weekend. At first the storms were supposed to arrive on Saturday, but that never happened. Then Sunday, but that passed without incident. Monday was hottest of all, but the strong winds promised something a-brewing. I'd put off watering anything all this while in hopes that nature would take care of its own, but yesterday I became concerned once again by the droopy state of the transplants and made the rounds with the watering can.
Finally, at about 11 last night, I heard the unmistakable rumble of thunder while reading in bed. I kept pausing between paragraphs, anticipating the sound of raindrops, and when they finally caught my ear I went to the den to watch them pound the pavements outside. Eventually, I padded barefoot (and bottomless) through the length of the house and back again--not to close the windows, since we'd already taken care of that before going down, but just to enjoy the sounds and sights.
On the way, I thought to look for the cat. His favourite hidey-hole, the upstairs closet, was firmly shut so he couldn't've gone in there and he wasn't in the walk-in off the bedroom either. It took many minutes of scurrying about before I thought to check under the bed. Ah, gotcha! He was out of reach right in the middle, so I wasn't able to scoop him up and take him to bed with me after all.
Still arguing with Proposed Story, for values of arguing that include that uneasy feeling of having retreated to our respective rooms to brood about the last attempt at communication and wonder if it would be too awkward to run into each other if we both ventured out to go to the can at the same moment. But in other Muse-related news, I turned around the other day and realized that I think I've been sitting on the Main Project's "elevator pitch" all along:
Paranormal bromance -- a supernatural-roommates story that focuses on how living with that circumstance would inform a modern life: How do you shave when you have no reflection? If you turn into a wolf in the city do you need to bring someone along to scoop your poop? Would you get fired for eating your annoying boss?
Not that I have any elevators to pitch this in at the moment, but there's something to be said for having at least found a jumping-off point to start explaining WTF it is that I'm doing, here...
Ben Kuchera: There is something deeply strange about seeing Call of Duty: Ghosts running on the next-generation engine that will fuel the future of the series. The first thing that jumps out at you is that it does not look that much better. There is no moment where you gasp in joy, or your jaw drops open. Instead, you’ll notice a moment here or there where things look almost uncanny, or you’ll get a sense of seeing more detail than you’re used to perceiving. Everything moves very smoothly. It begins to sink in slowly, and soon you begin to pick up little details and effects that may…
Gabe: Time for another episode of the number one webcomic reality show on Penny Arcade, Strip Search! I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but I will say that the elimination you will see this Friday was epic. -Gabe out
I hear that everything's up to date in Kansas City, so I'll be headed that way tomorrow to see for myself.
ConQuest beckons; KC's annual regional convention, one of the best. Should be a good time. Patrick Rothfuss is GOH, John Picacio will be there, along with Brad Denton, Caroline Spector, and all of my old KC friends and partners in crime. I'll be doing a reading, doing a panel, eating too much barbeque, drinking too much bheer.
And even before the con, we'll have the road trip. I will be hitting the road with my Aussie friends, and driving right through the heart of Tornado Alley, which should be an... ah... adventure. If you're in Oklahoma or Kansas and think you see me passing by, you may be right. The Big Well beckons... along with Dorothy's House, Pancake Boulevard, the Cosmodrome, and the Elevator of Terror (you can't make this stuff up).
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