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athenais
[info]athenais
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Dear Author Person,

Look. Everyone needs a Kaukauna Cheese Log in book form once in a while. Stodgy, dodgy, strangely tasty, one puts it away swearing not to touch it again and yet a few hours later one is getting it out for a little more. I find most quest fantasy falls into this category for me, and yet I keep reading quest fantasy hoping for something good. Once in awhile I find it. So I decided to read something that had been recommended to me and was available at my local library.

I don't know you; in fact, prior to this book I'd never heard of you. However, I have an amazing track record for authors finding my shallow rants book reviews to either take me to task or just scare me by saying howdy. So I'm not going to identify your book or you. Nonetheless, I'm here to tell you something for your own good: never write another shape changer novel. Yes, I know you wrote a trilogy. Please stop. You might also like to avoid Young Persons fiction, although I see you've written that, too. Again, no. Your influences are showing so hard I think I can identify the passages from each book you committed to memory when you were twelve.

In addition, please select a less limited plot next time. I kept waiting for you to subvert the paradigm or some damn thing, but nooo. You telegraphed what was happening in the first chapter and then that is by god what you wrote. Did they have to meet in a tavern? Did there have to be paladins? Did it have to be wolves? Couldn't there have been, I don't know, a wily old llama/shaman instead? Yes, of course there could have been, but then you couldn't have set your novel in a fake medieval Europe, and I'm sure you never even considered anything else.

Perhaps I wrong you. But right now I'm trying to get the cheese log out of my brain and I'm mad at you.

No love,
Athenais

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[info]makinglight
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It's evening now, here in Europe, so we're really two decades from that night. I can't watch even the announcement without crying. I never have, not since the first time I saw it live, and I don't know if I ever will. I'm not sure I want to; when I can watch sundered families be reunited with dry eyes I think I've lost some part of my humanity.

The nuances of the fall of the Berlin Wall are being debated all over. Anniversaries are good times for awkward questions and complex analyses. Were the East Germans fairly treated in reunification? Has the victory of free-market capitalism been everything it promised, all things considered? How many half-truths and simplifications have buried the ambiguous complexity of that time?

I have nothing useful to add to the discussion, except that I live in a Europe that could not have existed with the Wall intact, and I think it's a good place. I call it a night's work well done.

I think I'll have a drink. It's a suitable matter for a toast. Anyone with me?

cherylmmorgan
[info]cherylmmorgan
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Originally published at Cheryl's Mewsings. Please leave any comments there.

Today’s posts on World SF News include a con report from Utopiales by Aliette de Bodard. The con appears to have an interesting membership structure. There’s a dirt cheap one-day membership that appears to be an equivalent of Exhibits Only, a more expensive one that is “professionals only” membership of the entire event, and a “VIP pass” that looks like a way of making money out of rich fans who want to go to exclusive parties to meet their favorite authors. I note also that the convention gets a big subsidy from the city of Nantes.

Utopiales is often held over the same weekend as World Fantasy so I have never gone. It is, however, easy to get to by train. As I probably won’t be going to World Fantasy next year I may look into it, though I’m still waiting on the dates of next year’s Gaylaxicon, which will also be in October.

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rysmiel
[info]rysmiel
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Well, I'm back.

The colloquium was mixed. Mostly great scientific content, some of which was really exceptional, in various modes from really well-done systems biology to innovative bits of paradigm-pushing to classic genetics. The general standard was extremely high, with only a couple of exceptions. The judging posters process was kind of gruelling in terms of trying to make fine distinctions between mostly very good entrants. The whole thing was gruelling in a people-stuff way plus basically going for a whole day with a single half-hour break and no online time. And several of the talks had links from them which lead in dorections out of which I might get seminar material, so that is good.

Annoyingly, 2001 turns out to be on in duParc at 9 pm only, and making my way home from duParc that late on a night before I have to go to work is not appealing. We did however watch, on DVD, both Twelve Angry Men, which is totally brilliant, and the original The Wicker Man, which definitely has its powerful moments and elements but also does not manage to steer entirely clear of farce at some points; one can tell that people did their research, and also which wrong sources they used. (Caesar writing about the Britons has enough of a propaganda slant that taking his descriptions as accurate is a mite problematic.) Other than that, over the weekend, I basically went flop, played Civ, and read Dante; Z and A were over for dinner one evening which was really nice, and I am I think getting my groove at least somewhat back, though I was not up to writing at all.

Also, links c/o [info]ashbet:

Christopher Walken reads Lady Gaga's "Poker Face".

The inevitable mash-up of the above with the original.

and, found by myself:

Christopher Walken doing "Let's Misbehave" from Pennies from Heaven (possibly NWS).

Current Music: did you know "Green Eggs and Ham" goes to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" ?

cherylmmorgan
[info]cherylmmorgan
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Originally published at Cheryl's Mewsings. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve just taken the unusual (for me) step of de-friending someone on Facebook. Why? Because said person has been sending out “suggest you become a fan of” invitations for the same person once a week for over a month. The writer he wants me to become a fan of has a different name, but I suspect it is his pen name. In any case, if someone ignores a fan request once, they are not likely to take you up on it a second time, and absolutely not on the 5th. It just gets annoying. It is not, by any stretch of the imagination, sensible marketing.

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cherylmmorgan
[info]cherylmmorgan
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Originally published at Cheryl's Mewsings. Please leave any comments there.

Bleagh. We are both still sick. Indeed, both of us appear to have had relapses. Very odd.

Elsewhere various people returning home from WFC are reporting being diagnosed with H1N1 (or hamthrax if you prefer). I suppose we could have it too. Certainly we are going to avoid BASFA tonight just in case. But it isn’t at all serious, just annoying.

I do hope it clears up by next weekend. In the meantime it would be good to have my head de-fugged enough to be able to do some serious work.

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fjm
[info]fjm
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You can have health care as long as you give up your right to abortion.

I may have read this wrong. I don't think so.

Thank you [info]opalnipotent.
von_krag
[info]mnstf
[info]von_krag
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Allison Scott a FGoH at MiniCon asked for this and well, electrons are cheap...

Cheesy Peppers Corn bread

1 1/2 c. cornmeal
1 c. canned cream-style corn
1 c. buttermilk
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 Jalapeno peppers, seed & minced (fresh by choice caned if one must)
1/4 c. onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp. green pepper, minced
1 c. (4 oz.) Sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded

(optional: 1/2 cup Tasso Ham http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasso_ham & where I get mine http://www.cajungrocer.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=tasso&x=0&y=0 I use the COMEAUX'S but all are good.)

Combine all ingredients except cheese in a large bowl; stir well. Pour half of mixture into a hot greased 10-inch iron skillet; top with cheese. Add remaining cornmeal mixture. Bake cornbread at 450 degrees about 30 minutes or until done. Yield 10 to 12 servings.

Current Location: the kitchen
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls - Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays

nellorat
[info]nellorat
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Sleep, Good
I just slept for FOURTEEN HOURS--minus two pee breaks, one moderate hypo, and 15 minutes to respond to a student's paper due this morning--and it feels wonderful! (No, I'm nowhere near self-sacrificing enough to do that paper thing in the middle of sleep usually, but I knew that so many hours wouldn't happen in one unbroken stretch anyway.) I teach at 4:00 p.m. and may even NAP!

Last week I worked 45 hours, a personal record or close to it. And more demanding because (1) the two daily students for the Saturday test were very emotionally intense for me (and, of course, moreso for them), and (2) I'm not dissatisfied with the commute to Manhattan, because I can read and even grade/critique student essays, but it does make the day even longer.

Teacherly Bragging
Did I mention that on the October SATs I got two vicarious 800s in Writing and one in Reading? Well, if so, I just mentioned them again. Out of 800, of course. One student got one of each, and she's a talented sweetie, too, not a drudge!

And the 8th-grade student, the one I'm BEING PAID to teach poetry and myth to? We started because she didn't get the poetry on the SSAT (private school entrance test), bringing her score down. This weekend, she referred to Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts" as currently her favorite poem. The cool thing: she had no idea what that implied or how much it would mean to me.

ICFA PoC Scholarship News
No wonder I felt blessed and needed to share it with the world. No wonder the response pissed me off so much. But, by the way, all seems to possibly be quieting down on that front, maybe. So, OK. The ICFA board has decided not to take an official position, which is completely right, since it is our project.

And you guys, I love you. (I mist up! Despite more sleep I'm still emotionally labile, but that's one side of me.) I focus on the negative so much that even [info]womzilla felt I was letting several nay-sayers outweigh all the support I got from so many wonderful people. But that's not true. For one thing, I could never have seen the situation from the other point of view at all until I didn't hurt so much; some time was needed for that, but also reassurance and solidarity.

Mood: deciding between coffee and more sleep
supergee
[info]supergee
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Happy birthday, Benjamin Banneker

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supergee
[info]supergee
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supergee
[info]supergee
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Gina Barreca doesn't envy the young.

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supergee
[info]supergee
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Happy birthday, [info]aquaeri and [info]joemorf

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cherylmmorgan
[info]cherylmmorgan
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Originally published at Cheryl's Mewsings. Please leave any comments there.

Lack of bloggery today is at least in part due to Kevin and I playing with the Wii. Bowling and tennis are great fun, even though we are not that good. Baseball seemed a bit random, which is doubtless how I managed to win. The golf game did not seem at all natural. What we really need now is a bigger living room, because playing tennis together in a confined space is a bit difficult.

But it is fun, and exercise.

Next up, the Wii Fit thing with the exercise mat.

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saycestsay
[info]saycestsay
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  • 07:08 drinking hazelnut coffee out of a bone china cup; with a mauve rose and new-age jazz on the radio. is this the new victoriana #
  • 07:08 forgot to mention the leather club chair... #
  • 07:10 ate bad meat last night; now my stomach rumbles like a winter thunderstorm on the horizon. hurts, too. #
  • 07:51 rt @MichaelKnost Online writing classes start tomorrow night. Still room for you. Please RT: j.mp/1lUT9e #
  • 07:52 how does one pronounce "boredly"? am reminded why I could not finish this author's previous novel. #
  • 07:54 AP wire: for shame. A psychiatrist who hears stories from military returning from war zones does NOT have first hand knowledge. Editors .... #
  • 09:41 browsing through an old notebook and found a poem I don't recognize. it's good. it's mine. weird. #
  • 20:12 Watching dexter. Hurrah for tivo! #
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vgqn
[info]vgqn
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Last Thursday we put an old dresser out on the curb with a "FREE" sign on it. It was old and beat up. Mike had had it in the garage for years, thinking he would use it for organizing, but had come to the conclusion that he should just get rid of it instead.

We came home Friday night, and it was still there, but the drawers were gone. We were outraged! Why would someone take just the drawers? What were we supposed to do with the empty frame now?! We had dismal visions of needing to break it up and put it in the trash.

But after cooling down, I said, "Maybe, just maybe, they took the drawers (and the "FREE" sign, I'll note), because they wanted dresser but didn't have a big enough vehicle to carry it. This way, with no drawers, no one else will take it before they come back for it." So we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.

When we came home Saturday, it was gone. Yay!
dhole
[info]dhole
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So, apparently, I've gotten back to writing, after a bit of a dry spell. I'm not doing nanowrimo because I've got too many things I'm in the middle of, but there were 4,000 or so words of fiction written today, mostly in the 1851 thing.

They included these:

Given the course I had chosen, it would certainly not be just for me to complain of this violation of the principles of unarmed combat. Furthermore, I will admit that I had not the wind to make that complaint, or any other, for indeed, the chair had knocked it all from me.

I'm not sure that'll survive to the final draft, as it is a bit much, but they amused me.
netmouse
[info]netmouse
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  • 16:35 At Melanie and Brian's mutual awesomeness convention. Puppy pile activate! #

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vito_excalibur
[info]vito_excalibur
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It's understood
By every single person who'd be elsewhere if they could


That's from "Middletown Dreams", off of Rush's Power Windows. That song was the soundtrack of my life. It's about getting the fuck out. And oh, how I wanted to do that. You don't know. I have so many weird stories from growing up based on the fact that if ever anyone asked me "Do you want to go to _____?" I said yes. Didn't matter where. As long as it wasn't my house and my family and my cul-de-sac and my deadly stifling suburban neighborhood. I went elsewhere. I counted down the months till leaving for college in Sandman issues with my best friend.

And when I went to college, I loved it and it was awesome, but I knew I wasn't going to stay in Hyde Park forever. It was always an issue with the X. There was always a sell-by date on our relationship. I was going to get the fuck out. And when I moved to the suburbs in California, I missed the city like crazy. Until I lived in Chicago I never understood what my parents meant when they said the suburbs were empty like a ghost town. And now when I go home I know - cars fill the streets, but you can walk for miles and never see another human face. It's freaky. And I wanted to get the fuck out.

We went to see Girlyman - one of their best concerts I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot - and they played a lot of songs off of their new album. Which is called Somewhere Different Now. And to me at least, a lot of the songs on there are about getting the fuck out.

And I don't feel it.

No I do feel it, but I feel it as an echo. A driving need that just isn't there anymore. I listen to "Everything's Easy" ("You never know: wherever I go is away") and I'm overwhelmed with the weird ghostly sensation of the absence of the person who would have shivered like a tuning fork with the sympathetic vibration from that song. And it feels so strange to not be her. But I don't want to get the fuck out. I like it here. I like where I live. I still like to travel. But the need to get out is gone.

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Current Music: he said that the oceans are rising, so put your children to bed

vito_excalibur
[info]vito_excalibur
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et in Arcadia egoboo
Name: et in Arcadia egoboo
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