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| Saturday, June 2nd, 2012 |
tb
|
10:23a |
Green Grow the Weedies, O
I'm glad for today's rain, and I bet the plants will be too. Not having transplanted seedlings (which need plenty of water while getting established) before the trip, I didn't set up the hose-timer before leaving, especially given a forecast filled with showers and thunderstorms. Those never materialized so I was pleased things looked so green when I got back. Then I looked again and realized about half of that was weeds... Even so, I picked enough greens for the first salad of the season and noted that although a bit droopy, the snow peas have tripled in height. Garlic scapes are about ready to cut (so early!) and the blueberry bushes are covered with green fruit. I'll have to net them soon. I took advantage of the nice weather yesterday and did some illness-moderated slow-mowing, reclaiming a bit more of the overgrown parts of the yard (yay new mower). I also planted beans and cukes and started hardening my seedlings. I'm running about three two weeks behind this year but expect I'll enjoy whatever comes from the garden whenever it's ready. And if things fail, there are lots of farmers markets in the area these days. Time to start thinking about summer food. This entry was originally posted at http://tb.dreamwidth.org/405850.html. |
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diatryma
|
9:31a |
books, late May
I may have completely abandoned my nonfiction book; it's very academic and unfortunately I am not gigantically into that. Of course, then I replace it with an even more academic nonfiction book. If I don't pick up the one about polio by the end of June, I'll let you know I stopped. ( These are the ones I finished. ) |
secritcrush
|
2:51p |
A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
Spoilers, of course. Yes, I dutifully read 1000 pages of the fifth book in an (allegedly) seven-book series without having read any of the others. Which makes me a perfect person to read this book for the Hugo Awards - It's an award for the best novel published in 2011 and a book ought to stand or fall on what's actually in the book. Not how much you like the series or the TV show or how you like bearded men in hats. Just what's in this book, this year and nothing else. Unfortunately, A Dance with Dragons is a failure judged on that basis. It isn't a novel in any real sense. It's just a bunch of stuff that happens with no climax or resolution - a chunk of story ripped from a much larger work. There are something like 20 POV characters, some of whom are basically making cameos. There's a lot of storylines that show up, make a tiny little bit progress in the overall arc and then get dropped. I expect I was meant to care about Arya's adventures with assassination cults, but since I knew nothing about her, I didn't. And out of the five or so characters who make up the bulk of the story, none of them have a complete story arc, so it was a lot like watching the middle 20 minutes of a movie. I pretty much hated all the main characters. Tyrion? We meet him when he's reminiscing about rapes past and then threatens to strangle a woman he plans to rape later. He's a real charmer. Dany? She spends most of the book moaning about her dead husband and her live husband and her dead baby and how governing people is hard. Jon Snow? Well he didn't seem so bad at first but he goes on and on about how he can't break his vows while breaking his vows. I thought his stabbing at the end was well deserved. It's a readable book, but far too long. Martin spends a lot of time having characters remember things that happened in other books, which is really quite dull way to present that sort of thing (and I always find it really tedious when authors spend a lot of time recapping what happened before) so he could have dropped huge chunks of text if he'd just assumed that people could remember what happened before. I see some of the appeal - I enjoyed the twist Machiavellian politics of it, but since I didn't really know or care about any of the characters, I couldn't give a fuck who sits on the Iron Throne. Even if I hadn't found it racist and misogynistic it would be appearing below No Award on my ballot for not being a novel. |
msisolak
|
6:45a |
The charming patter of little feet
Mirrored from Marsha Sisolak. is not improved when they walk all over you.
Morning came too early.
Tonight they get the box. That was determined by the presence of a so-called gift on the stairs this morning that I did not see until it was too late.
I did not bring everything home with me to finish as I had thought. Half our day is spent going to Glendora and back, another third will be to head out to friends for the evening, and my report cards are still not done. Though I tried.
I tried.
Life still sucks quite a bit. The bright news is that I got my remaining partner permission to move to the vacant classroom next to me. (So apparently my principal REALLY likes me.) Since she’ll be teaching the transitional K’s, she’ll appreciate the extra space.
I should go check on the little monsters. Baxter could be fed and happy enough to destroy another couch. He certainly had enough fling in his step all night to get on and off the bed a bazillion times. |
amaebi
|
7:25a |
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lsanderson
|
7:40a |
The Science of ‘Gaydar’
 By JOSHUA A. TABAK and VIVIAN ZAYAS Published: June 1, 2012 “GAYDAR” colloquially refers to the ability to accurately glean others’ sexual orientation from mere observation. But does gaydar really exist? If so, how does it work? Moar |
kestrell
|
7:23a |
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elisem
|
7:04a |
that was then, and this is... an unhelpful dream
Hey, this thing about having nightmares that cause me to wake up being afraid I am still in the hospital bed unable to move without severe pain (and unable to move my leg even with severe pain)? Is getting old. So is the current level of pain, which is apparently driving some of the nightmares when I move in my sleep and trigger the pain. Silly body, you are Not Helping. OK, going to try again for some sleep. Current Mood: underslept and cranky about it |
secritcrush
|
1:01p |
Public Service Announcement
I can only imagine how it went: George R. R. Martin huddled over his manuscript making final edits when he came to a horrible realization. My God, I've used "whore" a mere 140 times. That's not nearly grimdark enough. He despaired at being able to fix the book, but he knew his fans were depending on him. Then she jumped on his desk, scattering pages of his manuscript all over the floor. His cat was a selfish bitch. She ignored his needs and demanded to be petted despite the mess she'd made. Always wanting to be fed, always wanting to be petted, by anyone at all. He'd even seen the neighbors petting her! "Whore," he said. "You're just a whore. None of the neighbors would look at you twice if they could see you like I can." I know! I'll shave her and parade her around the neighborhood and then she'll know her place. She'll be grateful to get any petting from me after everyone turns away from her in revulsion. He was about to get the razor when his cat nipped his hand and went to go lie in the sun. Why don't I ever win? The cat's always one step ahead. He would have gone off for a good cry, but then he remembered he could make the females in his books behave. He settled in to write a naked slut-shaming walk. Ok, that's probably not how it went[1], but I really wish someone had told me about slut shaming scene before I started reading A Dance with Dragons so I wouldn't have bothered. Which is why I'm telling you. ( cut for vileness ) If that hasn't put you off, Martin also includes a Magical Negro and a "what these people need is a honky" in the mix. The count: whore: 169 cunt: 29 bitch: 19 rape:18 As you can see, the whores have it by a country mile. It felt like more. [1] I have no idea if GRRM tried to shave any cats as inspiration, but he has admitted to killing a lot of turtles. Current Mood:  skin crawling |
veejane
|
7:37a |
Johan Santana threw a no-hitter! <333 Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I have moved mostly over to Dreamwidth. Please comment there if you can. |
penknife
|
6:59a |
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ceciliatan
|
3:04a |
Liner Notes: Kickstarter Wrap-up
Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.
I’ve been promising a lot of people a wrap-up of how my Kickstarter went and what conclusions I draw from it. I decided to post it here on the DGC site instead of the main blog on ceciliatan.com because later when I’m looking for this, this is where I’ll think to find it.
I ran this (successful) Kickstarter to raise the funds to produce a paperback omnibus of the first 200 chapters of my online serial, Daron’s Guitar Chronicles.
The short version for those not interested in the nitty gritty:
1.Yes, I would do it again, and probably will.
2. The majority of the backers seem to be people I already know.
3. I’m glad I didn’t set a higher dollar goal.
4. Running a campaign is time-consuming, so I’m glad I wasn’t on the road.
Total backers 122, total raised $3,386 (goal was $2,750).
Now on to the details on how it went, publicity, spreadsheets, math, planning, et cetera:
( Read the rest of this entry » ) |
| Friday, June 1st, 2012 |
kateelliott
|
8:48p |
Progress Report: 1 June 2012
It seems I live by the principle of my eyes being bigger than my stomach.
In online terms that means I either make great plans for getting offline so I can work incessantly, and then check Twitter every 15 minutes
OR
conversely, determine to institute a fabulous program of blogging every day in a manner witty, wise, informative, profound, or edgy. You know. Like people do, who do that. Those people evidently will never include me in their number.
1) I’m still waiting to get my editorial comments on COLD STEEL from my editor, but this should not be construed in any way except that she has a number of manuscripts on her desk and has to tackle them in order of priority of publication schedule. I expect to hear from her soon.
2) Comments from beta readers are coming in, and I’m quite pleased on the whole. There are a couple of scenes I need to expand on, toward the end, but I knew that so this just confirms what I knew, and that is always pleasant. The reason the scenes got scanted is because by the time I was pushing to the finish of the novel I was so exhausted from the 14 months of wrestling with it and the sheer number of false starts and detours and wrong ways I had to correct that I just wanted to get to The End and then worry about revisions later. So that’s what I did.
3) When I mentioned to one of my beta readers that I felt bad that my readers were going to have to wait so long and patiently before it was published, she pointed out that I also have to wait: To talk about it. And since there are some scenes, and lines, and details, and Stuff that I really love, be assured that (for those of you looking forward to Cold Steel) that I am SUFFERING RIGHT ALONG WITH YOU. Kind of.
4) Next week I have a guest post going up on Monday (June 4) at A Dribble of Ink on diversity. I hope you’ll pop over and join the discussion, if one gets going.
AND
I am doing a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Thursday June 7 at 8 pm CST (Central Standard Time) which is, uh, omg, like 3 pm my time. You know, I need to figure that out. ANYWAY, if you feel so inclined, please pop over. I’ll announce it again on Twitter and Facebook and here on Wednesday. By the way, Elizabeth Bear is doing an AMA on Tuesday June 5 at 7 pm CST. Also, my sons are concerned that because it is Reddit, no one will ask me any questions, so prove them wrong!
AND
I also answered seven questions about beta readers for Donna Hanson’s blog series on beta readers/reading. I don’t have a date for that going up yet, however.
Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds. |
girlyfarts
|
11:21p |
sew proud + "pride below the navel"
I, A.M. Alannouf, have just successfully: - Wound a bobbin
- Loaded a bobbin
- Threaded my machine
- Brought up the bobbin thread
- Figured out how to use the needle threader
All by myselfs, too! I'm feeling incredibly accomplished, as minimal as this feat is in actuality. Just felt like writing it out since there isn't anyone around to let my blissful squeaks out to. It felt sort of odd to be leafing through grandma's old sewing box earlier. I uncovered an old roll of measuring tape, and as it rippled out of its coil, I felt such ardor and assurance – a kind of fortuitous opportunity to derive a feeling of closeness to her, even amidst her absence. I'm going to hang onto this little box. It's a bit decrepit, and it is falling apart, but it is such a special little heirloom, and it should be treated as such. I'm fond of the thought of incorporating her antiquated materials and tools into the new pieces I hope to create. That truly makes me feel warm. I've been feeling such an intense yearning for passed loved ones the last few months. Mostly Aunt Jeannine and Grandma. I miss Tata and Grandpa, too, but Auntie and Grandma were just my heart. They brought so much joy and laughter to my life. Everything seems a little dull around here since they left. It seems like Mom is sort of slipping, mentally, sometimes. Only fractionally. Not like she's crazy or anything, but like she can't discern things too well, and her critical thinking is sort of a pile of mush. She sits and plays Farkle a lot on her computer. Does house work. She doesn't really go out much or do anything that really engages her brain. Maybe I just worry too much... but, I do. I wish it was easier for me to be kind to her. She needs someone to be really kind to her all the time. She needs to feel like she's somebody's favorite person, as Miranda July would put it. She is mine. I just have a strange deterrence to conversation with her the last few years. Her lifestyle really, really bothers me. These bothered feelings translate into resentment. I wish they didn't. I don't know. Kendall just got here. More later. |
| Saturday, June 2nd, 2012 |
agentxpndble
|
12:37a |
Empire Magazine June 2012
If you are looking for a copy of that June 2012 issue (and nearly died of sticker shock on eBay when you looked for it) be aware that your local Barnes and Noble likely has a stack of them. I was fortunate to be passing one (a rare event) and on impulse stopped in… Only $10!!! Here are my mega-scans of the Clark Gregg photo shoot of WIN in a zip file - 4 pages, I'm not sure why the files sizes are so freakishly huge…? Bigger is better though. ;-)  If anyone ever sees these for sale as photos, or acquires a pdf of the magazine, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! Current Mood:  pleased |
| Friday, June 1st, 2012 |
cofax7
|
9:37p |
I miss writing. ::kicks brain:: Crossposted from DW, where there are  comments; comment here or there. |
| Saturday, June 2nd, 2012 |
marrael
|
12:00p |
My tweets
- Sat, 00:26: It was a VERY GOOD NIGHT of Portraits After Dark this eve! Got home just after midnight. Feel like Cinderella, but after a date with art...
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| Friday, June 1st, 2012 |
tb
|
11:23p |
Road Trip Notes: Feasibility Impressions
I've attended Wiscon since 2008, taking a different path to Madison each time: flying in to Chicago, flying the Tiger to Madison, flying in to Milwaukee, and flying to the Twin Cities. This year we looked at air fares but couldn't find any that were both affordable and decently-scheduled. Frotz was feeling rusty in the piloting department, so we decided to try a road trip. We drove out (mostly on I-90) and back (via Canada) in a friend's car. ( Cut for whininess. )This entry was originally posted at http://tb.dreamwidth.org/405618.html. |
james_nicoll
|
11:41p |
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james_nicoll
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11:33p |
Living in the Future
Pohl himself, in an afterword to [Age of the Pussyfoot], made the following statement about the world he foresaw:
"I do not really think it will be that long. Not five centuries. Perhaps not even five decades."
Forty years after the publication of the novel, most people of 2005 will recognise the functions of the Joymaker in the cellphone, laptop computer, and personal digital assistant. Only the medical capabilities are missing from devices carried by people in industrialized nations in the early 21st century. These devices, however usually have far more computing power than the Joymaker as conceived, and more even than the 1960s mainframe computers that provided the inspiration. Some of the actual social effects of portable communication and computing parallel those predicted in the novel. Age of the Pussyfoot can be found in this bundle of books. Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are  comment(s); comment here or there. |
boxofdelights
|
9:18p |
Welcome to the Human Race by Timbuk3
Alink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yarKUO-ae-I&feature=endscreen&NR=1I love pretty much everything by Timbuk 3 but this is the one I keep coming back to today. I love their sound and their emotional intelligence and their clever, funny, playful lyrics. There's a phrase at the climax of the story I'm working on now that I keep switching. When I opened the file it was "for more than an instant's epiphany" and now it is "for more than a moment's epiphany". Last time (and probably next time) I opened it, I switched "moment's" to "instant's". I see now that I prefer the vowel sounds of "instant's", but the consonants of "moment's". What do you think? (This is a story for telling, not for reading.) This entry was originally posted at http://boxofdelights.dreamwidth.org/193351.html. Please comment there using OpenID. |
metaphortunate
|
8:19p |
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meganbmoore
|
10:18p |
Snow White and the Huntsman
First of all, may I just say that the new Brave trailer seemed to designed to make me NOT want to watch the movie, as most of the emphasis was on how Merida is Not Like Other Girls and is Super Special and doesn't get along with her mother because her mother wants her to be an icky proper lady and Doesn't Understand Her and her dad is just so much more awesome and approachable in her eyes? (I mean, I still intend to see it, but the trailers and such keep shoving that part in my face.) Also, apparently the movie got backburned for years because there was a female director who they had to fire because she kept putting in all these scenes between Merida and her mother that the Pixar dudes just didn't understand and were confident that women didn't interact that way but then eventually a dude came along and fixed all those scenes for them. Anyway, I had not intended to watch Snow White and the Huntsman opening day, being rather allergic to crowded dark rooms full of people I don't know, but I may be doing a lot of overtime at work in the next couple weeks, making today possibly my last chance to catch a matinee showing for a while, and I didn't want to have to hide from chunks of the internet to avoid being spoiled. In short, it lived up to my expectations and I loved it. It did several things I wanted it to do but thought it wouldn't, and fulfilled my quota for female centric heroic narratives, evil queens, costume and scenery pr0n, and "'grumpy loner x wee cute scrappy thing' MOST CONTEXTS ACCEPTABLE." The trailers and clips I watched made it pretty clear that they were going for a more mythic (as in "heroic epic") approach than a lot of fantasy movies seem to, and it really does, particularly when it comes to animal guides. I suspect some of it may be a bit too random/convenient for some (not helped much by the inclusion of a few brief bits that seem to be there mostly because they thought it'd be cool for the trailers), but it worked for me. The movie is also amusingly in love with its own epicness. Actingwise, Charlize Theron unsurprisingly puts in the best performance. I haven't seen any other of Kristen Stewart's movies, but I thought she was pretty decent here. Not the best actress ever, but not bad either, and in terms of screen presence and appearance, I think she was an excellent choice for the role. (Let's give "No one would ever think Kristen is hotter than Charlize" a rest already. Yes, Charlize is a more conventionally attractive hot blonde. Get over it.) Thor did a pretty good job given that his character was drunk in over half his scenes. And may I just comment on his hilariously bad Scottish accent? Pretty much everyone else had a British accent, but for some reason, his was Scottish and not really good, as was immediately made obvious as he spent the first few minutes delivering a rather clunky narration. (Which would have worked better with Ravenna doing it than the huntsman, really.) BTW, I know the huntsmans name is Eric, but I'm not sure if it's ever actually said in the movie. Also, there are fairies that somehow manage to be weird/creepy and absolutely adorable at the same time A couple brief comments about 2 things that might be triggery. ( possible triggers )Spoilery comments: ( spoilers ) |
elisem
|
9:53p |
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cloudscudding
|
9:46p |
Photo Friday: I Caught It!
Now what do I do?  One of our cats, Fu Manchu, has taken to jumping into the playard's diaper-changing basket in the morning when I set the baby in the playard and go upstairs to shower and get ready for the day. This is probably because the baby usually cries when I do this, and Fu Manchu finds it important to keep an eye on crying babies, and also when the baby has Fu Manchu to watch, he cries less. But there may be other reasons.... |
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wiscon
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