Thursday, May 31, 2007

Going for Goals

I’ve always found paranoia to be a perfectly defensible position.
- Pat Conroy

Here are the goals I set for myself way back in April:

  • Plot & outline RS.
  • Finish crit of AD for Phoenix.
  • Start writing RS - get a chapter done by May 31.
  • Work up an estimated word count of RS based on outline.
  • May 1-31: write final chapter for the Naked Project on the OWG.
  • Finish M’s socks.
  • Finish Blood Diamond socks.
  • Finish Icarus.

Uh huh. And here’s how I did on them:

  • Plot & outline RS. ~ Nope. Did a series of plot points, but not the entire thing, and no outline.
  • Finish crit of AD for Phoenix. ~ Partially done. I have a good start on her crit, but it’s by no means finished.
  • Start writing RS - get a chapter done by May 31. ~ I decided part-way through the month that I wasn’t going to keep shooting for this goal. Not only was the outline not done, but I decided it was more important to get SS edited again first.
  • Work up an estimated word count of RS based on outline. ~ No outline, no word count estimate.
  • May 1-31: write final chapter for the Naked Project on the OWG. ~ DONE! Yay!
  • Finish M's Socks. ~ Nope. One sock and a third of the other done, maybe.
  • Finish Blood Diamond socks. ~ Not yet. But close, and May’s not over yet, either. We’ll see.
  • Finish Icarus. ~ No way. But it’s so much fun to work on, and I don’t want to rush the ending.
Mother's Day010

I hope you all have a great day!

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Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Week 22 ~ Talyn

Week 22 ~ May 28-June 3, 2007

Talyn

by Holly Lisle
(fantasy)

Talyn is a sweeping tale of love, war, and betrayal. It focuses on honor among enemies, trust, and faith. It will catch you up in the World of the Korre, and won't let you go even after you finish the final page.

This is an amazing book. Holly Lisle is an incredible author, who manages to make fantasy worlds come alive. Her characters have more depth than some real people I know, and the Korre cultures are so much a part of the world that it seems like an actual place you can visit.

I have heard others say that the very beginning of the book was hard to get into, and while I didn't have that problem I suppose I can understand it. However, everyone I have spoken to has been hooked by the story before too long, and I have heard nothing but praise for Talyn. If I have a problem with it, it is that the story catches you up and won't let you go, but is too long to easily finish while still allowing yourself to get any sleep. I would have trimmed it a bit, though I'm not sure what to have edited out and yet still kept the tale's impact. All told, though, it's a wonderful book.

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Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Stray Thoughts and Contest

M and I went on an explore on Monday for Memorial Day. Well, not really *for* Memorial Day, you understand, but more because it was a lovely day and we didn’t have to work, and we felt like exploring. So we ended up here:

Lake

Very nice. Very calm and peaceful. Very dry compared to what the park map said it should have been. But that’s what happens when it doesn’t rain as much as it should.

~ * ~

Rachel Vincent is having a contest! Her new book, STRAY, is released today, and that’s just exciting. I love seeing debut novels. One of these days we’ll be celebrating my debut novel. Eventually. Once I finish editing it, and sub it, and … Right. Rachel.

So, Stray sounds like a fun book. It has werekitties instead of werewolves. (I like kitties better than wolves. So that’s a point in its favor even though I haven’t read it yet.) On her website, she has an excerpt from the book, She’s a fan of Kelley Armstrong, whose books I love, so that’s another point in her favor. I plan to get this one and check it out, though I only heard about it this morning. (Thanks, Ez!)

~ * ~

Holiday weekends used to be for exciting things, for trips and vacations and action.

Now they are for naps.

Sleeping Suz

They are still wonderful, don’t get me wrong. (Children don’t appreciate the value of naps.) The focus has just changed. I start to wonder if this shift in focus has anything to do with the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of several years ago, or with the dramatic increase in gas prices, and I find myself thinking that while it may affect some people’s decision to stay home more, it doesn’t affect mine.

For me, I just don’t have as big a need to go places and do things to feel fulfilled. Yes, vacations are nice and I like to see new things. But they’re an added bonus and not a requirement.

A lazy day spent with family and friends. Good food. A pretty view. A sleepy cat. Those are just as important as anything else I could spend my holiday doing.

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Monday, May 28, 2007

In Memory

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Friday, May 25, 2007

Friday Fiver ~ 5.25.07

Friday Fiver: If You’re Mad About Me:

1. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
Telekinetics. This has always appealed to me. Just think - no more getting out of bed to turn off the light when you’re done reading at night! No more worries about how to hold the book open while knitting! Use TK, and multi-task better! Whee!

Of course, this also means that no alarm clock anywhere would be safe if I didn’t want to get up.

2. Which is more attractive to you: physical appearance or personality?
Personality. Any day.

And the most important and attractive part of physical appearance? Eyes & smile.

3. Who did you last fight with?
The horses. They didn’t want to go to bed. I wanted them to go into their stalls (bed) so that I could feed them and then get the things I needed to do done. They ended up in bed, but I was wet from the hose spraying all over me while I was filling troughs, and dusty from slogging around in the pasture, and mad. Grrr. Doesn’t last, though.

There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man. ~Winston Churchill

4. What did you eat last night?
Pasta with chicken.

5. Who are you mad about?
Heh. M.

AND… to distract myself from that last question, here are cat pictures.

Porch Kitties 05

These are our “porch kitties” - cats who live in the front yard and have adopted us. There are a lot of them. We can’t catch the mom, and so more kittens keep appearing every spring.

Porch Kitties 04

They’re so cute, though.

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Thursday, May 24, 2007

Around The Blog ~ Thurs, 5.24.07

The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.
- John Ciardi

What’s happening in the Blog-O-Sphere today? Fancy asking that question. I have answers for you!

The Guinea Pigs have stack parking, and are very adorable! Last Friday, Hanna found (and posted pics of) some freakishly painful-looking shoes (along with other cool stuff) and did a review of how to design a good-looking and easy to access webpage.. Charlie and FireWolf and DeeAnn are all sadly MIA. :(

Lesley is being a fangirl. (Twice.) Tiennie does more socks, and Amanda is organizing. Imbrium plays with baby sweater origami, FyberDuck made an uber-cool Pirates hat (for POTC 3 which is released THIS WEEKEND! YAY!), and Wendy has successfully moved to WordPress.

Chris has posted lots of contests and Mayhem (the kitty) pictures, as well as a link to the most distracting Internet site in a long time. Mim has mostly finished Tilia. Holly’s sky looks gross. And last (but not least) for today, PBW considers ending StarDoc.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

In news a little closer to home, here is the current progress on the second Blood Diamond sock:

Blood Diamond Socks 08

Oh, look! The sock is being modeled by an otter. (The hedgehog is on vacation. Maybe he will take pictures while he is gone.)

Blood Diamond Socks 09

I’m into the gusset increases now, and looking forward to having this pair off the needles. Soon. Maybe. (I’m not sure I’ll finish any of the three projects I had wanted to finish this month.) Speaking of those projects, I’m into Chart 4 on Icarus - though I don’t have any new pictures - and have a shot showing the funky striping that happened in my second Tofutsies sock when I changed needle types.

Tofutsies Socks 07

See that? About an inch down from the needles there’s a place where the stripe turned into a square. I have no idea why that happened, but I suspect it was related to me using bamboo dpns instead of the metal circs I had been using. Which is why there are circs in use again.

Have a great Thursday!

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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Writing Woes & Contest Winners!

A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation to the editor.
- Ring Lardner

More and more of the people I know are submitting to agents and publishers. This makes me wonder if I should feel left out because my MS isn’t ready yet. I don’t think it should. And I don’t think it does. But I still wonder.

I don’t know when my MS will be ready. I don’t know when *I* will be ready. But neither of us is ready yet.

Jasmine 01

I don’t think I will have RS completely outlined by the end of the month. But I have decided that at the end of the month, outline finished or not, I’m putting RS away temporarily to do a Big Edit on SS. Partly because I’m getting to the point in the OWG where that massive edit will be needed for my crit buddies to be allowed to read the chapters. But also because getting back into the Watchers’ world just might help me work on the second book in the series better. The current plan is to have RS fully outlined and ready for NaNo07. But we’ll see. You never know what will happen in the wild and wacky world of writing.

Jasmine 02

In non-writing news, we have contest winners! Yay! Here are the winners:

Sian
Amanda
goddesssaint

Please drop me an e-mail to ca bookwyrm gmail com with your mailing address, and I’ll see what kind of prizy goodness to get in the mail to you. Yay! Winning things is fun!

Birthdays are fun, too. M brought me flowers on my lunch break, and then took me out for dinner. C had me over in the evening for a birthday It’s It. (Yummy chocolaty and ice cream goodness!) In general a very good and peaceful day.

Me by Jasmine

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Week 21 ~ Dark Lover

Week 21 ~ May 21-27, 2007

Dark Lover

by JR Ward
(paranormal romance)

Dark Lover is the first in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and is a re-read for me. I still enjoy it after who knows how many reads. (It's one of the books that I can pick up and read a chapter here or there and then put the books down again without finishing it, since I know the story so well. But I can also read it all the way through without getting bored.)

It is a good intro to the world, and if you plan to read the BDB I would highly recommend starting at the beginning. The trickiest part about getting into this series - for me - was the names. (Wrath, Rhage, Phury... the only one that sounds the way I would expect is Darius.) They seem a bit artificial at first. But by this point I am so used to them that I don't think about it anymore.

Anyway. Great book. Probably my favorite in the series, just because everything is still so new in this book. And the multitude of plot threads (which I enjoy reading about ) are still manageably confusing at this point. Plus, it's nice to go for a re-read and get to see the seeds for the other plot threads get started.

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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

A Happy Day

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.
- Charles Bukowski

There has been some concern that Suzy had killed and eaten a real, formerly live, mouse. This is not the case. Please set your minds at rest: this is the mouse that she “killed”:

Blue Mouse - Killed 10

Totally not the ever alive kind of mouse.

Blue Mouse - Killed 11
*munch*munch* “mmph - One for you, and one for me.” *munch*

I just hope she doesn’t find the real, formerly live version to give me as a present today. Because speaking of today…

Today I am 30! Wow. It seems to creep up on you, doesn’t it? And yet I also find that it’s just another day, and it still doesn’t bug me. It’s actually kind of nice, as my 20’s were filled with all sorts of weirdness. Toward the end of this last year, my life started to stabilize. And now, at 30, I’m really, truly happy with where my life is and where it appears to be going. Not just content - happy. That’s the first time in many years that I haven’t tried (and failed) to convince myself that content was happy.

It’s a very nice feeling.

I hope that each and every one of you can find that same happiness, or have already.

Mother's Day024

*a reminder: I will be collecting the comments from my Blog-Bash post at the end of the day today. If you lurk here and want a chance to win prizes, go forth and comment. Winners will be chosen randomly tonight or tomorrow morning.

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Monday, May 21, 2007

Presents and Last Days

The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools.
- Doug Larson

Blue Mouse - Killed 08
“Look, Mom! I killed it! A present for you for your birthday!” -Suzy

“Gee, thanks Suz.” -me

So, as a reminder, these are the last days to comment on my Birthday Blog-Bash for a chance to win prizes. Besides, it’s nice to comment.

Blue Mouse - Killed 09
“You don’t mind if I eat its head, do you?” -S

Besides Suzy’s present for me, I got myself a nice present, too. I figured what the hey. So I bought myself some scrumptious sock yarn. Blue Moon STR Silkies in the Lunasea colorway. Nice to look at, nice to pet, and I imagine that it will be nice to knit up as well. But I’m making myself wait until I’ve finished both the pairs of socks currently on the needles before I start this yarn up.

Stash 03

Stash 02

Cats & Silkies Yarn 02
“What is it? Mom hasn’t brought me a toy like this before.” -Suzy

“That’s a toy for her, cousin. She won’t want you to play with it - but it’s a Kitty Law that all yarn-type toys must be played with by the kitties even if their parents say no.” -Peekaboo

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Friday, May 18, 2007

New Look!

I decided that it was silly to take nice pictures and not use them. So here's a new template using a picture I took instead of someone else's artwork.

Enjoy!

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Friday Fiver: Now and Always

Always be nice to your children because they are the ones who will choose your rest home.
~Phyllis Diller

1. What was on your mind yesterday?
Theatre. (We had rehearsal.) And going to bed early so I could get up early. Way too early.

2. What is on your mind today?
Tired… very tired… Oh! But I had lots of tea this morning, and a veryyummypastryfromPanerabread and - hey! The wall hurts when you bounce off of it!

3. Do you like bonfires?
Oh, yes. (Pretty fire. Fire! Firefirefire!) Especially when sitting by the bonfire with a special someone.

4. Do you believe in the paranormal?
In the “my neighbor is a vampire” type of paranormal? No. But in the “more things on heaven and earth” type of paranormal? Yes.

5. Can you swim?
Yeah. Haven’t in a long time, but I can. Need to start doing it again. I miss swimming. Not so much the hair-smelling-of-chlorine part, though. Or the stinging eyes.

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Thursday, May 17, 2007

Knitting Update

Okay, so it’s not the most exciting of titles. That’s because I’m tired.

First of all, please remember to go visit my blog party bash! There are as-yet-unbought prizes to be had, so comment, comment, comment.

Second, I promised pictures. Here are pictures.

Icarus Shawl 10
Icarus progress

Icarus Shawl 09
Icarus close-up

The Tofutsies yarn was splitty and annoying at the cast on of this second sock. So I tried pulling out my bamboo dpns and casting on with those.

Tofutsies Socks 05

You can’t tell in this picture, but the dpns - once I got into the instep and far enough away from the short-row toe that my tension relaxed up a bit - caused the striping to be different in the second sock.

Tofutsies Socks 06

See how the stripes are relatively short, and nice and even in the first sock? Well, the stripes got much larger in the second one. (I’ll take a close-up picture later.) So I determined that although I prefer knitting with the Tofutsies yarn on the bamboo needles much better, it would look best if I switched back to my metal circs (Addis) for the matching issue. I have another skein of this yarn; I will use my bamboo dpns for that skein.

I’m tired now, so I’m signing off. Have a great afternoon, everyone!

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Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Writing Weds: Goals Update

I haven’t forgotten that I want to post a writing update on Wednesdays. I really haven’t.

So, here’s a very short post with my goals update.

  • I still want to get RS outlined. I am still working on it.
  • I no longer want to get a chapter of RS written. Instead I intend to edit SS when the RS outline is done.
  • I still intend to get my OWG crits done. They are not done yet, but they are started.
  • Ditto the AD crit for Firewolf.
  • I am also still planning on writing the final chapter of the Naked Project, but - say it with me now - I’m still working on it.

That’s about it.

Hope you’re having a great Wednesday!

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Big-0 Blog Bash

Mother's Day032Well, it’s that time of year again! My-birthday time! Yay!

Actually, I haven’t really paid much attention to my own birthdays these past few years. Yeah, I’ve noticed the years going by. Yeah, I’ve done stuff with my family. But I haven’t really celebrated.

This year, however, is a Big One.* The start of my thirties. Wow.

So, I’m having a party, and you’re all invited. Plus I'm giving away stuff!

Leave me a comment with suggestions for what to do while my parents are away next week (oops - Dad reads my blog) your favorite garden flower. Comments can be left at any and all of my blogs** by the end of the day (Pacific Time) on my actual birthday, 5/22, and I will find some random way of picking winner(s). Number of winners dependent on the number of comments… :) Please also make a note of whether you would prefer some kind of fibery prize or bookish prize.

Thanks for helping me celebrate!

* Or so They say. It doesn’t really feel like a big deal to me yet. Of course, when my Baby Sister hits the Big Three O, it might be another matter.

** that last link is to my friends-only Live Journal

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Incoming!

  1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
  2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
  3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
  4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.
Courtesy of Maripat and Hanna, though with so many people I know blogging it was really only a matter of time before I got hit with this one. And I really don't mind... it gives me something to blog about this morning. (But remind me later - I have knitting progress pics to show you, too.)

So... eight random facts. Well now, let's see just how random I can get, shall we? Sounds like a challenge to me.

  1. When I was little, I wanted to be an author. Specifically, a novelist. Then I let Real Life interfere, and accepted that I would never make a living at it, and so let that dream slip by the wayside. Now, I have determined that even if I never actually make a living at it, I am going to be a novelist. (Some time after college graduation I decided that Real Life was way overrated, and have since gone back to my own personal blend of Romantic Idealism. I'll take that over the dog-eat-dog world any day.)
  2. If I had entered college with the knowledge that I graduated with, I would have majored in Linguistics instead of English.
  3. I almost made it to the top of Half Dome (in Yosemite National Park), and to this day I regret the sense of vertigo that prevented me from going all the way up. (Yeah? You try hiking up a one-person-wide trail with two-way traffic, lots of gravel, and a very steep drop-off. My poor little 13-year-old mind couldn't handle it.)
  4. I am a morning person by choice, but given the opportunity will stay up until all hours. Partly because when you're involved in theatre it's often hard to get to sleep at a reasonable hour. Partly because night is when I get new story ideas. Partly because I'll turn on the computer to play a game "just for a half-hour before bed" and next thing I know it's 2 AM.
  5. I kicked a guy in the shins once in junior high. He was invading my personal space. Poor guy was probably just trying to get up the nerve to talk to me, or something, but he was being super annoying.
  6. I am a firm believer in both fate and free will.
  7. I talk to spiders and try to convince them that if they stay outside, I will live and let live. But if they come inside, and get within my reach, I will kill them. This discussion doesn't usually work very well. Perhaps because both M and my dad are the "save the spider" type, and so will carry the crawly things outside instead of letting me kill them. I mean. Really. They are ruining my credibility, here.
  8. Books are a not-so-secret not-so-guilty pleasure of mine. I can wander a bookstore for hours trying to decide what I can afford to buy. When I have my bookshelves set up (not at the moment because I am currently living at my parents' home) and all my books out (ditto previous) I can also spends hours re-arranging them so that they are grouped by type, or by author last name, or by genre, or just in a way that looks really cool. And then don't try to put one back in the wrong place, because I will have just spent hours making them exactly the way I want them. I will know.
That was fun. Thanks, Mari!

And now who to tag... Let's see.

  1. Sian, who I have been finding out has an insane amount of stuff in common with me, and besides she is the one who made sure I knew I was tagged.
  2. Charlie, since she's been absent for so long.
  3. Brigitte, in the hopes of getting more stories of the Little Dudes.
  4. Crys, since she'll have some things to write about when she gets back from her trip.
  5. [info]kendas and
  6. [info]springfire, since they have both complained of not having spent time with their flists
  7. Also [info]ez_oz and
  8. [info]andrea_miccaver who always seem to like MEMEs.

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Monday, May 14, 2007

For A Cause

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.
~Thomas Jefferson

Once again I call upon my fellow knitters (and everyone else) to contribute to a cause. This time, it’s Knitters Against MS. Claudia (the blog owner in the link) is doing a bike ride to raise funds to fight Multiple Sclerosis. I plan on donating some money tomorrow, after I get paid.

A really incredible friend of mine once had MS. She was the sweetest person I think I have ever known, and sadly I lost touch with her about six years ago, not long after she was diagnosed with MS. I have no idea how she is doing today, whether she and her husband ever decided to have kids, how their adorable ginger kitty is doing. But I hope she is well. And I will do what I can to help fight MS, because there is a hope that my aid will help her be cured.

In her honor, and for all you mothers out there, here are some photos from my family’s gardens.

Mother's Day039
Dad's Garden 06Mother's Day036 Mother's Day034 Mother's Day031
Mother's Day029 Mother's Day027 Dad's Garden 03 Mother's Day022 Mother's Day015

(all photos are clickable to see them bigger)

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Week 20 ~ Oryx and Crake

Week 20 ~ May 14-20

Oryx and Crake

by Margaret Atwood
(science-fiction)

Oryx and Crake was recommended to me by a co-worker, and so I picked it up with some hesitation. I never know how a rec is going to be coming from someone who barely knows me.

I was quite pleasantly surprised. It is a good book, well written with good character depth. The issues in the book are relevant and creepy in their possibilities. Some parts are definitely sci-fi in their reach, but other aspects are quite possible in the not-so-far future. Which, of course, is what makes the book so creepy. No one *really* is comfortable reading an apocalypse novel about a future that could actually happen.

Snowman/Jimmy is the main character in the book. His is the only POV voice, and he delivers the story of the End Of The World As We Know It in a series of flashbacks interspersed with clips of the "present" day. The timeline is a little confusing at first, as we struggle to figure out exactly what happened to the rest of the world, but it emerges piece by piece into a rather complex and developed plot.

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Friday, May 11, 2007

Friday Fiver: 5.11.07

Funky funky club on Fairfax Avenue
1. What do you obsess about?

Obsess is a strong word. Do I obsess about anything? I’m not sure. But I’m passionate about music and theatre and the written word. About freedom and rights and morality. About family and love.

And most of all, about hope.

2. What do you do for a living?
I’m a receptionist. I do admin work. Would love to be a novelist for a living, though, and not just an “I write books on the side” type of thing.

3. Where do you call home?
California, baby.

4. Have you lived up to your parents’ expectations?
Every day.

5. Are we more likely to find you in a coffee bar or a nightclub?
Coffee bar, with a notebook (or my laptop) in hand, writing. Unless I’m there with friends, in which case we’ll be the ones nursing a coffee (tea, in my case) for hours, talking and laughing, hogging the cushy chairs if we can manage it.

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Thursday, May 10, 2007

Vitamins As Illegal Drugs? Or Not?

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.
- Charles Bukowski

I am currently reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, so this is a timely matter for me.

It seems that the FDA wants to classify all alternative medicine as actual medicine. So things like vitamins and herbal supplements would be considered drugs. And as drugs, must either be dispensed by a medical professional, or be illegal.

Here is some information about the FDA’s desire to make vitamins and other health supplements a “drug,” which must then be administered only by a licensed medical professional. AKA your local vitamin/natural remedies store? Will close, since the owners are not physicians.

And here is a link to send comments about the issue - supposedly the deadline has been extended to May 29.

This worries me. Oryx & Crake deals with a nasty look at the future which is (while probably sensationalistic) something that sounds plausible enough to be really scary. It’s similar to the way Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury) and Brave New World (Huxley) are scary because they are sci-fi which may one day not be sci-fi. None of the three are futures I want to live in.

I do not know if regulation might be good for the industry. It might be. It might not. But I currently have a very cynical take on government regulations and the added prices that come with that regulation. It may have a good intention, eliminating some of the “increased confusion” that come with the supplements. And - this is the part that I think might be good in execution rather than just in intention - they might regulate the supplements being shipped here from other countries.

But I write sci-fi fantasy. And I see in this real event many, many sci-fi plots. And fantasy plots. And soft-horror plots. And they all have disastrous (or nearly so) results for the average citizen.

I think that some happy medium might be best. Something in between what is being proposed and what currently is status quo. Something to safeguard us from being affected by a human-type version of the pet food scare, yet not something quite so Big Brother-ish as this is being publicized to sound. Yet in my experience, humanity is a lot better at overreacting than at moderation.

And so I worry. Do you?

In The Sink 03
No. I don’t worry. Come pet me, and then you won’t worry about anything, either.

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Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Ooops - So, Writing Content

Writer’s Five for 5.09.07
from the writers_five LiveJournal community

Oops. So I was supposed to post writing content today. And I forgot. So here’s writing content that I post elsewhere, reposted here too.

1 - Who is your character’s confidante? At the moment, either Scott (her BF and work partner) or Rich, her brother.

2 – What color would you paint your (character’s) nemesis’ bedroom? White. Stark white. With no decoration, or wall hangings, or anything.

3 – Who is your character’s favorite artist? She doesn’t have one. She’s not into art, much.

4 – Is she a disappointment to anyone, or is someone proud of her for her accomplishments? Why? Her parents are proud of her because she’s out in the world doing good things, but they don’t really understand her. It’s hard to, when she’s a magic user and they’re not, and there’s a whole secret sub-culture of the magic users.

5 – What sort of place spooks her? Why? Consciously? Nothing. She’s out there to Save The World, so she’s “no scared of anything.” In reality? A place where she has trouble being in control, like a place where she doesn’t speak the language (and therefore doesn’t always know what’s going on - hard to be in control if you don’t know what’s happening) or where everyone else has more power than her. So not so much a place as a situation.

~*~ ~*~

Project specs:
Title code:
RS (sequel to SS)
Theme: In which Cynthia and Scott travel to Germany on a “vacation” which turns into a search for the impossible: a werewolf and the perfect engagement ring.
Protagonist name: Cynthia
Protagonist characteristics: as a Watcher, is part of a group of magic-users who acts as a disaster response team. She likes excitement on the job, but hasn’t been trained to deal with anything like what she experienced in SS. She’s now trying to train herself, but keep it hidden from her superiors.

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Munchies!

It’s the pre-lunch thoughts of food! Yay!

Tongue 01
Mom, why are you talking about food? You’re making me hungry.

When I used to work at the library, one particular co-worker and I often worked evening shifts together. And inevitably when it got to be about a half-hour to closing, we’d start talking about food. She and I suffered through many a Chinese food craving while stuck behind the check-out counter.

But it was fun.

Now, at my current job, I have snacks with me. I’m at the front desk, though, so they have to be unobtrusive snacks. No microwave popcorn for me. No, I munch on things like dried fruit, teddy grahams (yummy AND bite sized! Win-win!), and Chex mix (it’s in the quarter vending machine… what can I say?). I try to be healthy, and given that I could be munching on M&Ms (yummy chocolate…) I think I’m not doing too badly.

Suzy, on the other hand, munches on Girl Scout cookies.

When she can get them.

Which, if my niece is dropping them ON THE FLOOR, is often.

Tongue 02
Mmmmm… Girl Scout cookies…

Go away, Mom, I’m dreaming of cookies.


Yup. Dreaming of cookies. She's my cat, alright.

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Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Week 19 ~ No Humans Involved

Week 19 ~ May 7-13, 2007

No Humans Involved
(Women of the Otherworld, book #7)
by Kelley Armstrong
(fantasy, paranormal romance-ish, some – not me – will tell you horror)

Ah, back to the Otherworld. I love this series. A lot. It’s well developed, well-rounded, and well written. The heroines are strong and yet versatile, and the relationships make sense. A very nice series indeed.

This specific book could, if you chose, be read out of order without much confusion. Jaime, the narrator, hasn’t been a huge part of the previous books, and the parts she has played are touched on as good reminders of her background or ways to introduce new readers to her. (I suspect that the format change from paperback to hardback made it a priority that this book be able to support readers who are new to the series.) There are plot points from prior books that will be spoiled if this one is read first, and there are nuances to character that will be missed, but the book should hook new readers as well as old.

As to that hook, it starts off with Jaime preparing for a séance to raise the spirit of Marilyn Monroe and discovering that she’s going to be staying in a house where she’ll be required to eat her meals inches away from a hanged man – only he’s a ghost, so she’s the only one who notices. Jaime is a necromancer, and her powers of being able to see and contact the dead alert her to the presence of half-ghosts in the garden… ghosts which shouldn’t exist in the fashion they do. It’s written with a good blend of humor and substance, romance and action and thought. This is possibly my second favorite book in the series, possibly my third fav. But it’s definitely near the top of the series, and comes with high praise from me.

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Monday, May 7, 2007

Without A Tail

Blue Mouse 03
The mouse is gone! Why is the mouse gone?

Cats, it seems, can play with anything. String, toy mice, even just the mouse tail when the mouse itself has gone missing.

So what’s wrong with us? What’s the difference with people that we can’t amuse ourselves as easily?

It seems that we always want more. A bigger TV, a better stereo, a faster car… What we really need, however, is to sit down and enjoy the little things.

Blue Mouse 04
Is the mouse over here under the spinning wheel?

We need to play more, to see what’s around us.

Now, I hadn’t planned this type of a blog post for today. In fact, I hadn’t planned anything about today’s post at all, which is why I didn’t write it earlier. But over my lunch break I decided to walk for food (yeah, it was fast food, but it was small portions so I don’t feel bad) instead of driving. I work in an area that has a lot of retail stores and car mechanics, so it wasn’t the nicest scenery. But the act of walking made me think about how seldom we do just that.

Whether it’s roses or skyscrapers, we need to look around and take in the sights more. We need to slow down, to appreciate the moments we have here, on Earth, with our loved ones.

Blue Mouse 05
Found it, Mom!

We need to pause, and play with a mouse.

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Friday, May 4, 2007

Mark That Stitch!

Look what arrived in yesterday's mail:

Stitch Markers 01

Pretty new stitch markers from Hide and Sheep's Etsy shop. Aren't they nice? And when you add two of them (there are six in the set) to the Blood Diamond sock, you get a sock-face. Look. Can't you see it? The markers are the eyes, and the part of the toe where the pattern starts puckers in a bit and looks like a nose...

Blood Diamond 08 & Stitch Markers

Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees this. I already suspect that I may be going slightly insane.

The dangle-free stitch markers weren't the only thing I bought from Hide and Sheep, though. I also bought sheep.

Icarus Shawl 07 & Sheep Markers

The sheep (set of four) are on Icarus. The white crochet cotton is my lifeline, and everything above the lifeline is chart #2. I love the subtle way the pattern started changing. It's great. Much fun to knit.

Anyway, I suppose I should finish up the work week by actually doing work at work, so I'll get back to it. Hope you all have a great weekend!

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