Less than a month to both NaNo and the election. I'll have a lot more fun with one than the other. I'll leave you to guess which one.
]]>That is all.
]]>If people make assumptions about you simply on the basis of your appearance all your life, assumptions ranging from criminality to sloth to unearned opportunity, it can make you bitter and hard and cynical. That none of those things is part of the Obama character means that he has turned his particular version of the race card into an ace and is using it to play with the full deck. That is not a deficit. It is an advantage.
(source: Anna Quindlen's "The Caucasian Card")
It just resonated with me. Earlier in the article she talks about how Obama's race is indivisible from his campaign. He *is* black, he can't help mentioning his experiences from that circumstance. But he isn't a stereotype, thank goodness.
I don't like getting too political in public. I think it's probably obvious that I'm a liberal. Honestly, if someone feels differently and can articulate it, then more power to them. But please, please think first before you make a decision.
]]>Also, huzzah to the Drumsticks, who capped off their week 22 of 12 with a winning the post-season tournament! Three games, played a week after they were scheduled, thanks to Hurricane Ike's leftovers, one beaned ankle (mine, because I *still* can't field freakish direct-to-the-second baseman ground balls), and one fake-marble trophy later, you get this.
And happy birthday, Mike. Hope you enjoyed your cake. It is not a lie!
]]>Today is also the day in which a large white sheet is covering the in-progress building across the alley at work. We think they're fireproofing things, and the sheet is to keep our building from getting inadvertently sprayed. But it looks like it's snowing out there. Looking out the window just gives a blank view, and it's very disconcerting.
Today is also the day of our last regular season make-up of a rainout of a rainout softball game. As my coach put it, nothing short of biblical will stop us from playing, so I forsee a soggy evening on a muddy or grassy field. Maybe my cleats are dried out from last week...
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Thank you, Michael. You're sweet.
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Take right now, for example: I have this idea for this year's NaNo that it will have a quasi-Victorian setting, maybe based on reality, maybe a little steampunk, so I looked up books on Victorian history. For those keeping score, that was when Queen Victoria ruled England, circa 1840-1870. I now own three books on Victorian history, because not only are the books full of information and juicy little tidbits that will pad out my daily word count nicely, but sometimes they're just hilarious. I'm sure that someday people will look back at our time and wonder what we were thinking, because that's what's happening when I read these. And I'm having fun. I like learning. History can be interesting!
But I'm not the sort of person to seek out nonfiction books normally. I have to have a good reason. And research for NaNo is a pretty darn good reason.
This is why I know I could be a professional writer. Because I don't mind the research. It's quite fun to absorb all the bits of information during the research phase then have them suddenly coalesce in a somewhat coherent whole during the draft phase.
Here's to research. May it never get boring.
And here's to me, who got a whole lot of books (and the 2nd season of Heroes), because it's that little thing known as my birthday. Huzzah.
]]>This hasn't happened to me before, I don't think. I'm pretty sure that all the times I've flown I've never had a delayed plane, so in the grand scheme of things, it's not horrible. It's not like I won't get to sleep in my own bed tonight (though the beds in the Hyatt were pretty darn good), like the person who was suppposed to be on a 5:30 pm flight to Chicago and didn't leave until slightly before 8 and will have to spend the night there. I've got plenty to do (knitting, iPod, laptop--go free WiFi @ Denver, boo not-free @ STL--several books, some of which are personalized with author signatures and of course that little thing called writing) and I don't have to go to work tomorrow, but I do wish I was home. And I'll have to have some food here eventually, which I'm not too happy with, because I've had to buy every single meal since after breakfast on Thursday morning, and I'll be quite glad to go home to actual food that doesn't cost me money every time.
Denvention (Worldcon) was a lot of fun. I got to stalkhang out with Carol Berg quite a bit and I roomed with one of my friends from last year's Archon/NASFiC, so that was cool. Not quite as many writing-centric panels as I would like, and I definitely want to go to World Fantasy now, to compare the two, but this year's WF is out, since it's in Calgary and I don't have a valid passport, so I'll have to wait for next Nov...and eek, it's in Nov, which is NaNo time (eek, NaNo is only three months away) and wow was that a run-on sentence. I'll try to do better next time.
I like Denver. I could live here. But I'd like to be at home.
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Yes, I finished another book in less than six hours.
Last year it was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...this year it was Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer.
I went to the midnight release party at my neighborhood Borders with my friend Josh. It wasn't that big of a deal, but there was a trivia contest with stickers as prizes and a costume contest. Josh had to wear a pink wristband (so did I, to show we preordered and thus got to get in line before some number of people there, but I didn't have to worry about my masculinity being threatened). We sat around and talked about writing and authors and the new Star Wars animated movie coming out, and I had a Vampire's Kiss smoothie (aka strawberry ;) ). Then it finally got around to being 12:01 am and we got our books. I picked up Randy Pausch's book The Last Lecture and another YA book that had come out in paperback, and every!single!one! was on sale, because two were hardcover bestsellers and thus at a discount, AND I had a coupon for the other! Discounts for the win!
Since I'm catsitting for a friend who wants me to stay at her place a few times while she's away, I headed over there instead of home (there were happy kitties to keep me company, so it was all good). Started reading around 12:45 am or so. Found a good place to stop around 4:10, slept for four hours, got back into it around 8:30, and finished around 10:30. So approximately 5 1/2 hours for 754 pages. Yes, I am that insane. At least this time around I slept in the middle ;)
Then Mike and I went to a pool party thrown by one of his coworkers, which was fun, if not exactly the most relaxing thing to do when one is going on four hours of sleep. And now I'm having a late dinner of sweet and sour tempura chicken and rice, and watching Shark Week. Life is good.
A very short review after the jump.
]]> Nothing too spoilery here, but I liked it, mostly. There were some parts where I groaned and thought to myself, "I can't believe the author actually went there" during the just-a-smidge unbelieveable end of the first part, or "wait a minute, did I miss something" during the romantic bits...not that I expected anything graphic, but it's been a long time since the "closing the door" method has been so abrupt. I feel that she tied things up pretty well, though there could certainly be more. Bella is still a Mary Sue character that somehow still manages to get me to feel for her. I'm still a member of Team Edward. I'm sure at some point I'll reread it, but it will be a good long while. If you read the books with any sort of thought process going on in your head you probably figured out how the books would end long ago, and I bet you wouldn't be far off.]]>Well, I did read 10 books, but according to the rules of the game (books started in another month but finished in July and rereads count only as half a book) I only read six.
Regardless, I'm happy with my haul, because I finished off the Twilight series (this is the fourth time through them all) before the 4th book comes out this weekend, and I reread one of Carol Berg's series before I'll meet her again at Worldcon next weekend. I only read three new books, but I do want to note that there was about a week at the beginning of July (before I heard about the game) where I was trying to catch up on my magazine reading, since I am perpetually behind in my Newsweeks. So I really only had three weeks to read all that.
I'm really excited about Worldcon. I should have plenty of money, thanks to my curbing of my Borders appetite, and it's in Denver, which is one of my favorite places. I'll get to meet a couple of my favorite authors (the aforementioned Berg and Patrick Rothfuss and maybe even George RR Martin), attend some neat programming, and hopefully take a trek or two around Denver. Hopefully I will not get altitude sickness or forget anything.
Just have to make it through one more weekend of catsitting for my friend, and then it will be off to Worldcon--"One mile closer to the stars"!
btw, happy birthday to Harry Potter (likewise, JK Rowling)!
]]>"The Last Lecture" and "Time Management" after the cut.
]]> ]]>Visit the author's site at www.jasonpinter.com.
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See what you look like as a guy or a baby or an anime character with this fun site. This is their idea of me as a Mucha painting. Too bad I'm not really that pretty! ;)
Gotta go buy a digital converter. Silly government coupons expiring.
]]>I don't even like beer. If I've been to the brewery it was long ago, way before I was able to enjoy the tasting at the end. But I do love the Clydesdales and the dalmatians and the many events and destinations that Busch is a part of, and they are a huge part of St. Louis culture, and indeed the US. Sure, the mean people who bought the company in a hostile takeover say they'll keep sight of A-B's standards, but that's what they said when May company bought Famous-Barr. I call ballocks. And who thought that the Belgians were so rotten?
I wonder if it's still going to be Busch Stadium in a few years. I hope so. I always liked that name. I realize it is actually product placement, but it's been Busch for so long, it doesn't seem that way. Maybe the Busch family can keep their names on some things.
Bye bye Busch. I hope you stay the same, but I bet you won't.
Oh yeah, happy Bastille Day.
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