merry birthday, sailingwest!

Very, very drained, but it was a great weekend :) Spent from Thursday evening til Sunday morn with the guys out at a cabin near Center Hill Lake. I was the DM for the entire weekend... quite exhausting. I keep having to fight against falling over at work.

In all, probably played over 20 hours of D&D. Interpersed with Wings of War, ping-pong, and lots of food and talk :) Woot... too tired to write more now.

Okay, you know what? I've held out for nearly three and a half months now, but I am nearly at my breaking point (even though we are now in the home stretch). I am SICK of not having my own computer to work on. There are huge disadvantages to sharing a computer that you just really don't even think of until you have to do it yourself. I HATE logging out of everything every time I walk away from the computer, because the hell I'm leaving my email accounts vulnerable to prying eyes. And on your average day? I need to be logged into LJ, JournalFen, Yahoo email, Gmail (with Reader and Documents), Twitter, Delicious for bookmarks, Pandora, a couple of message boards, and my file storage account; my life would be infinitely easier if I could just stay logged in. So I HATE dumping the cache and the cookies and the browsing history and even the SEARCH history if I so much as duck out for a glass of tea, and I HAVE to do it, because you know why? You know why? Researching the @#$%*&@ e-book footnotes, that's why. If I didn't, you'd go to the Google drop-down search box and get "bella's felted womb," "dead from coke," "edward lipstick," "gq motherfucker," "total eclipse sex scene," 5000 Twilight articles, and "twincest." And there is NO WAY I am letting my family know I spent that much time looking up shit about Twilight.

I can't do a whole hell of a lot on this computer either, since it's like eight years old as it is--in excellent condition, but it's only got 30GB storage, you know? You can infer from that what the processor thingamawhatever speed must be like. It just can't do a lot. It can't handle Skype, for example. And I don't have any of my pet programs (Semagic for LJ, TweetDeck, ACDSee photo organizing, and probably a ton of others I've forgotten because IT'S BEEN SO LONG SINCE I'VE USED THEM), because the computer either can't handle a given program or it can't handle them all together. And we THOUGHT it had Photoshop, but apparently not, and while I'm pretty handy on that, I apparently am too stupid to operate MS Paint. People keep telling me how to crop and I just. can't. manage it. And then I go back to Firefox and accidentally hit "home" instead of "new tab" and I lose my entire LJ entry draft, because whenever it tries to recover a "saved" draft, it gives me the previous entry I already posted. HATRED.

And then I can't really save images (no room, plus other people looking at my shit) or watch videos (I hate being walked in on while I'm trying to watch whatever weird-ass thing someone just linked on Twitter. Mostly I just don't have time because I'm under the gun to get anything done before someone else needs the computer), assuming I could get the video to work at all. Because I physically can't get time at the computer as much as I'd like, my Google Reader news items just sit and pile up, so every morning I have "1000+," and one day I cleared 600 items and STILL had 1000+. I keep having to star things I want to go back and use in the footnotes or save pictures from, and I am TIRED OF IT.

If I didn't have the iBella--which at least has a camera, an mp3 player, and apps for Twitter, Pandora and my email that I DON'T HAVE TO LOG OUT OF--I would have gone insane by now. The day I figured out how to copy-paste links on my phone, I nearly wept for joy. Even there, I can't really answer emails or LJ comments at any length--if it's going to be a short reply, I can tap it out with a minimum of head-meeting-wall, but y'all know how wordy I am. We get to more than two sentences and I just can't manage it; I have to wait to answer until I get to the (shared) (family) computer. And then I have to log into umpteen thousand things all over again but then someone else needs the computer RIGHT NOW and I have to dump everything and hope no one noticed that I was at that moment searching "vampire sex toys." Oh, and blip.fm just doesn't work on the iPhone at all. RAAAAAAAGE.

Only one more week until [New Computer's Name] arrives. I will console myself with a peppermint chocolate chip milkshake from Chick-fil-A, I think.


ETA: THE MILKSHAKE MACHINE IS DOWN

WHY GOD WHY


(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

merry birthday, blessed_lunatic!

STAR TRAVEL comes in three types, depending on which Tour you book. A Tour will typically have only one kind.

1. N-space FTL. Here, the Management thumbs their collective nose at Einstein and allow STARSHIPS to travel faster than light in normal SPACE. This method tends to be the slowest of the three.

2. Though HYPERSPACE. Here, the ship enters an alternate space of more flexible DIMENSIONS. This space is alternately referred to as tauspace, foldspace, and jumpspace, depending on which Tour you book. This space tends to consists of lots of bright colors, probably just visual effects provided by the Management.

3. Through a network of WORMHOLES or STARGATES. The former are naturally occurring while the latter are constructs of the ANCIENTS. This form can be a bit unreliable, as the Management will, without any notice, have one close for repairs if it is dramatically correct. This can be a nuisance if it's the only one within reasonable distance. Since we are talking about cosmic constructs, closings typically last for centuries, so you'll just have to find a different route if you can.

Technically there is a fourth type. This involves travelling through normal space at sublight speeds, with the passengers being kept in CRYO-STASIS. Due to the slowness of this method, it sees virtually no use (except in a few specialized Tours) and was something employed in the distant past^OMT. However, Tourists may encounter such vessels on occasion which had set out shortly before the current method of Star Travel had been discovered.

Note that all three will typically cause a mild queasiness^OMT in inexperienced Tourists. (Contributed by Yours Truly)

Index

What is this?

MTV EUROPE MUSIC AWARDS 2009 !!



Last Thursday, the MTV Europe Music Awards were held in Berlin...and they made headlines with some of the stunning fashion choices and amazing outfits worn by the stars who were appearing on stage and in the Awards Ceremony itself, either as a recipient or a giver...or, indeed, as a host too...Katy Perry managed a quite extraordinary twelve outfit changes, and Beyoncé gave us a few things to think about too !!

Do come and see what everyone was wearing, and whether they fell foul of my lovely shiny silver Fashion Police handcuffs, or gained one of my super-duper Gold Stars, especially all polished up for the occasion !!

( Come and see... )

this is just what i did as i remember it... it worked very well.

( butternut squash soup )

Happy belated birthday to crackferret, and happy early birthday to actourdreams, otoselkie, and coppervale. May all of you enjoy many happy returns of the day!

Last night we attended Star Wars in Concert. It was absolutely magical. Anthony Daniels did a terrific job of hosting the evening, and the combination of the symphony, choir, and film clips was spectacular. There's a great review of the event here at SFSignal that describes the night very well.

I managed to get several decent pictures from the related Star Wars exhibit, including one of Yoda and one of Han Solo encased in carbonite. You can see the rest here.



If you have the opportunity to attend this show during its tour, I highly recommend it!



“ The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.”
- Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Hope

I took the Little Miss to see a ballet production of "Pilgrim's Progress" this afternoon. It was held at our church and produced by a woman who has a ballet ministry that caters to home-schooled children. The LM watched it very intently, and a few parts were scary for her. After it was over, she asked why she was not in it.

This morning the Little Miss had a soccer game. She played very well, getting into the thick of things and getting the ball away from the other team, but the other team was older and beat them pretty badly (2 to 15 :-( ). She really wants to score a goal before the season is out. There are only two games left. Big Joker stayed home with Nesterino during the game. If Nesterino goes to a game, we spend the whole time trying to keep him off of the playing field. He dribbles very well, and knows to head for the goal. We'll put him in kiddie kickers when he is 3.

KERZNER MAZAGAN BEACH RESORT LAUNCH PARTY !!



Roses are the new black...

Remember this group of posts :-

http://wendylady2.livejournal.com/36269.html

http://wendylady2.livejournal.com/36571.html

This was all about the opening of the beautiful new Atlantis Hotel Resort in Dubai...
Well, the owner of that resort - billionaire tycoon, Sol Kerzner - has opened a second hotel resort in El Jadida in Morocco, just about 55 miles southwest of Casablanca...and at the weekend, he threw another almighty bash to celebrate its opening, with a guest list of around 1500, about half of whom were A-lister celebrities !!

So, of course, there were a good deal of beautiful, and some not quite so beautiful dresses being shown off, and of course, I kindly paid a visit on your behalf just to see what I could see...how thoughtful !!

( Come and see who wore what... )

I'm finally getting around to posting about Halloween. It rained (of course). The LM's soccer game was canceled; however, the playgroup/neighborhood party was not. Big Joker went hunting that Friday night and came back around 3:00 on Saturday afternoon and went with us to the party. The family who hosted rented a blowup bouncy thing (I'm not sure what else to call it). The kids loved it. Nesterino was too small to be on it without an adult, so I went with him. It did not take him long before he figured out how to climb up to the top of the slide and go down it. He managed to escape from me once while we were in the back yard and got into the blowup thingy and before I could catch him, he make it down the slide by himself.

Big Joker was tired from hunting, so I got to take the kids trick-or-treating. We went with a neighbor down the street, who has a daughter one year older than the LM. It was drizzling, and I pulled Nesterino around in our red wagon. I informed the LM, before starting, that I would not be pulling her in the wagon. 70 pounds of kids are way too much for me! The LM ended up getting more candy that I wanted her to have in a year. I pared it down some and took our leftovers and gave it to someone in the neighborhood who was collecting for her church to give to the homeless.

Nesterino was a bee and the LM was Tinkerbell. Nesterino did not care for the cute hood on his costume. He would only wear it for about 30 seconds before taking it off. I did manage to get one picture of him with it completely on:







Blowup bouncy thingy:


Ill fated attempt to get a picture of the kids:


We went trick-or-treating with the girl in the middle:

It's here! I am very pleased to announce the release of my latest book project, The Intersection of Fantasy and Native America: From H.P. Lovecraft to Leslie Marmon Silko.



A number of contemporary Native American authors incorporate elements of fantasy into their fiction, while several non-Native fantasy authors utilize elements of Native America in their storytelling. Nevertheless, few experts on fantasy consider American Indian works, and few experts on Native American studies explore the fantastic in literature. Now an international, multi-ethnic, and cross-disciplinary group of scholars investigates the meaningful ways in which fantasy and Native America intersect, examining classics by American Indian authors such as Louise Erdrich, Gerald Vizenor, and Leslie Marmon Silko, as well as non-Native fantasists such as H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien, and J.K. Rowling. Thus these essayists pioneer new ways of thinking about fantasy texts by Native and non-Native authors, and challenge other academics, writers, and readers to do the same.

Praise for Intersection of Fantasy and Native America:

The essays in Sturgis and Oberhelman’s The Intersection of Fantasy and Native America open our eyes to the kinship between families of literature hitherto seen as separate-fantasy and Native American fiction-showing their interconnections in subject matter, in techniques of dream and trance and magical realism and post-modern meta-narrative, and most importantly, in their ability to penetrate appearances in search of underlying truths. The result is that we see each in light of the other and both as parts of the larger, so-called “mainstream,” and as essential to our understanding of literature, its writers and readers, in the 21st century.
—Verlyn Flieger, Professor of English, University of Maryland at College Park, Author of Interrupted Music, A Question of Time, and Splintered Light

With excellent and accessible scholarship, this book opens wide the door of Native American mythology and fantasy by connecting it with the fantasy many of us already know and love. I'm now convinced there's a vast treasure store of fantasy I haven't even begun to experience, and there's nothing more exciting than that for the lover of fantasy fiction!
—Travis Prinzi, Author of Harry Potter and Imagination and Editor of Hog’s Head Conversations

( Table of Contents )

The book is now available at Amazon and directly from Mythopoeic Press. I also will have a few signed copies available through my website.

Depression, I have often said, is like an influenza of the soul. A spiritual hamthrax, if you will. I has it. Do not want.

It's actually starting to worry me a little, the intensity of this go-round--it's not the usual stone-cold ennui. Normally I'm not this bad off until after New Year's (well, except for the pity party I throw myself every year in the weeks leading up to my birthday), and, again: that's more of a seasonal apathy-funk. This involves a lot of dread and distress and, at times, actual panic involved. I have to think this is because things are just generally bad around here at the moment, and have been for a good while now. Two different family members are having job-related crises, for example. I'm having performance anxiety in terms of trying to write, I don't have a dependable place to work, I'm just generally very unhappy. But it's taking on a hysterical edge that makes me uncomfortable--I keep having urges to act out in some way. I don't mean harm myself or anyone else; I mean, like, throw a gigantic melodramatic fit du shit. I know I had that minor meltdown where I started throwing shit earlier this summer, but that is the ONLY TIME IN MY LIFE I have ever done anything like that. So I'm not used to having the urge to, like, flounce from the internet for the hell of it or something. And that's why I'm sitting here talking about it so calmly, because I feel like the only way to combat irrationality is with detachment. Take an overview of the thing, recognize what you're doing, shove it into the light of day. So... yeah.

(By the way, laptop has been ordered; money has cleared checking account. It will take about two weeks from November 3rd for Dell to build and ship it, what with the custom art and the crazy-ass 17" facial recognition screen. I don't even know. I spent a ridiculous, extravagant amount of money because I could, and it felt GOOD.)

A little Twi-spam for the hell of it, since Sparklemas is fast approaching:

( T-REX, VAMPIRES CAN HAVE KIDS AND LITTLE DINOSAUR VAMPIRES SOUNDS PRETTY CUTE TO ME )


(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

It's here! I am very pleased to announce the release of my latest book project, The Intersection of Fantasy and Native America: From H.P. Lovecraft to Leslie Marmon Silko.



A number of contemporary Native American authors incorporate elements of fantasy into their fiction, while several non-Native fantasy authors utilize elements of Native America in their storytelling. Nevertheless, few experts on fantasy consider American Indian works, and few experts on Native American studies explore the fantastic in literature. Now an international, multi-ethnic, and cross-disciplinary group of scholars investigates the meaningful ways in which fantasy and Native America intersect, examining classics by American Indian authors such as Louise Erdrich, Gerald Vizenor, and Leslie Marmon Silko, as well as non-Native fantasists such as H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien, and J.K. Rowling. Thus these essayists pioneer new ways of thinking about fantasy texts by Native and non-Native authors, and challenge other academics, writers, and readers to do the same.

Praise for Intersection of Fantasy and Native America:

The essays in Sturgis and Oberhelman’s The Intersection of Fantasy and Native America open our eyes to the kinship between families of literature hitherto seen as separate-fantasy and Native American fiction-showing their interconnections in subject matter, in techniques of dream and trance and magical realism and post-modern meta-narrative, and most importantly, in their ability to penetrate appearances in search of underlying truths. The result is that we see each in light of the other and both as parts of the larger, so-called “mainstream,” and as essential to our understanding of literature, its writers and readers, in the 21st century.
—Verlyn Flieger, Professor of English, University of Maryland at College Park, Author of Interrupted Music, A Question of Time, and Splintered Light

With excellent and accessible scholarship, this book opens wide the door of Native American mythology and fantasy by connecting it with the fantasy many of us already know and love. I'm now convinced there's a vast treasure store of fantasy I haven't even begun to experience, and there's nothing more exciting than that for the lover of fantasy fiction!
—Travis Prinzi, Author of Harry Potter and Imagination and Editor of Hog’s Head Conversations

( Table of Contents )

The book is now available at Amazon and directly from Mythopoeic Press. I also will have a few signed copies available through my website.

i'm tired, but the leonard cohen show was quite good.

oh, and woodlands doesn't have our pictures up on the wall saying, "throw these people out if you see them!", and the service was decent, so it's probably safe to return there.