Author: etoiline

Playing cards

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I’m terminally behind in my reading of Newsweek to which my mother’s friend Debbie so thoughtfully subscribed me. So if you read that mag, you might recognize this quote from the Last Word essay of the Aug 18/25 issue:

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.

Happy Fall

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Let’s hear it for the beginning of the season of pretty trees.
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.
2008champions.jpg
And happy birthday, Mike. Hope you enjoyed your cake. It is not a lie!

Patriot Day

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As much as I hate the name, today is a day to remember those lost seven years ago. Seven years. How could it be that long ago?

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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…

what’s my type?

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Your result for The What type of MAN turns you on Test…

Naughty boy

You scored 35% masculine, 47% athletic, 36% exotic, and 44% refined!

You like your men with a more boyish look. The huge muscle-popping men don’t do it for you as much as the sleeker toned guys. You like the all-American look, but not the squeaky clean type – a little on the bad boy side. Someone like…..Ashton Kutcher. But let’s face it, the whole point of this was to look at a bunch of hot guys. If you liked what you saw, please rate my test!

Take The What type of MAN turns you on Test at HelloQuizzy

Research

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Sometimes I forget how much I love it.
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.

It had to happen sometime

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I’m hanging out here in the Denver Airport, waiting for a plane. I was supposed to be leaving right about now, but the plane was delayed two hours getting into LAX, and therefore it will be about an hour and a half late getting here. I know I was going to get home late…but now it’s really late.
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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Breaking Dawn

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Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4) 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.

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Reading

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So you might have noticed I was trying to read 10 books during the month of July.
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)!

RIP Randy Pausch

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Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon who died yesterday from pancreatic cancer, the same type of cancer that my uncle died from. He gave two very moving, inspirational lectures and wrote a book and gave many interviews. He lived strong and filled his last days with whatever he could, and I can have nothing but respect for him. The world has lost a good man. We need more heroes like him. Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
“The Last Lecture” and “Time Management” after the cut.

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