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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) jedediah |
| 06 Jul 2009 10:53 |
| May and June submissions |
| Public |
http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2009/07/06/12227.html Looks like I failed to post a submission report for May. Sorry about that. Here's a combined report for May and June.
In May, the Strange Horizons fiction department received only 328 valid submissions, tied for 23rd-highest-volume month ever. The reason volume was so (relatively) low is that we closed to subs for nine days at the end of the month. We averaged nearly 15 stories a day on the days we were open.
In June, we received 571 valid submissions, an average of 19 stories a day; the second-highest-volume month we've ever had. Volume started out very high when we reopened: 50 stories on the first day back, the second-highest-volume day we've ever had; then 37 stories the second day; then 30 the third day. It eased off a bit after that, but the first week of June was nonetheless the highest-volume week we've ever had (176 stories), and volume continued unusually high throughout the month—about 16 and a half stories a day for the last two weeks of the month.
Unfortunately, this means that the one-week closure didn't work as well as I'd hoped. It did give us a much-needed break from submissions, which was great. But I had been hoping that since we were closed for only nine days, there wouldn't be a huge flood afterward.
Across all the days we were open in May and June combined, we averaged over 17 stories a day, which is still quite high for us.
Dividing the total number stories in May and June combined by the total number of days, including days when we were closed, yields 14.7 stories a day, about as many as we received in April. So one way of looking at this is that we got the same number of stories we would have gotten if we hadn't closed.
Which I suspect means that almost everyone who showed up to submit during the closure looked at the dates and said "Oh, they'll be reopening in n days (n < 10), so I'll just wait and submit then." Whereas when we're closed for longer, presumably some percentage of people say "I'm not gonna wait two weeks/two months to submit this story, I'm gonna go submit it somewhere else."
Anyway, I was hoping that (in addition to the main effect of giving us a little breathing room) this might be a way to reduce the total number of submissions, but clearly not.
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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) madrobins |
| 06 Jul 2009 11:54 |
| Summertime, and the Living is Frivolous |
| Public |
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It's summer, the perfect time to do something silly. Like go up to Skywalker today to watch a screening of The Wrath of Khan with other, similarly geeky Lucas employees. Am meeting Sarcasm Girl and The Beau in Richmond and driving up with them, for a picnic dinner and the aforementioned frivolity. Deciding whether to bring popcorn...
In other news, Avocado called from camp requesting provisions (of course you forgot toothpaste, you ridiculous widget) and telling me that she'd snagged the part of Grace in the camp production of Annie. I think she would have made a killer Miss Hannigan, but Grace is good too.
Emily remains a dog. As a matter of fact, Emily remains a high-flying dog (although this photo is a year old):
If you look closely you can see a red ball in Em's mouth--the reason for her levitation trick. I do rather like the looks of awe on the faces of her canine peers.
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The filing is done. The bathroom floor is drying. Yes, I am made of Awesome.
...of course, I still have the essay to write. And the dishes to wash. Hmmm... *looks in direction of kitchen*
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If your comment is:
(a.) anonymous
(b.) extremely short
(c.) in a language I can't read*
(d.) any combination of the above
I will assume it is spam and delete it.
If it was a sincere effort to communicate, please try again.
---
*Languages I can read: English, French, Middle English if you give me a dictionary and plenty of time, Anglo-Saxon ditto, Latin ditto, ancient Greek ditto only more so. I have German and Italian dictionaries, and I thought I had a Spanish dictionary, but that seems to be a myth.
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It's been a while since I've edited the subtitle of my journal. I used to have a Lily Tomlin quote up there, but while Knight and I were down in Pigeon Forge this past weekend one of the places we went was the Hoot 'n Holler dinner show.
A quote from the show (and I don't know where it came from beyond that) struck me as both amusing and appropriate, so I have appropriated it for my journal subtitle:
If you can't take the heat, don't tickle the dragon.
I can't decide whether I want to change my journal layout/theme or not, but the subtitle was a must! :)
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Not the Ben Affleck Armageddon, the Andy Lau Armageddon.
A disjointed, over-stuffed, intermittently coherent movie (or possibly several movies jammed together) made watchable and, if in company, extremely amusing, by the presence of the gorgeous Andy Lau and by its high WTF quotient.
I began watching this by myself. In the first two minutes, a priest spontaneously combusts. Then it cuts to sad computer scientist Andy Lau, moping adorably on his yacht. One of the very best features of this film was Andy Lau curled up sadly in chairs, sofas, etc. Oyce and I kept wanting to hug and cuddle him.
And then something happened that made me fall off my sofa laughing hysterically. I stopped the film, deciding that I needed to watch it with Oyce to watch her reaction to this.
( Dehydrated humans can be reconstituted -- just add water! )
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The weekend migraine is finally easing off, though the house looks like someone didn't spend time straightening up or cleaning this weekend (or for the past month, for that matter.) With out-of-state company coming by this afternoon, that's not great.
OTOH, the bread is in the oven beginning to smell wonderful.
And I found four different things in bloom (in the yard only) to put in a little vase for the kitchen table, which is clean, has a clean cloth on it, and plates and eating utensils laid out. Ironweed, firecracker bush, Mexican oregano, and scarlet sage. Two colors of purple ("aggressive" and "gentle"), orange, and pure true red.
And the headache's eased off.
Rain, on the other hand, did not fall upon us even though it got very, very close and sprinkled (we did get four tenths of an inch yesterday evening.) At least it's cloudy and thus not evaporating the four tenths immediately after they fall (this happens. Hard shower, sun comes out, wind dries it, plants get nothing.)
I'm gathering energy to shove things on the living room floor under the piano so we can move around *a little* in there.
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| dsgood |
| 06 Jul 2009 13:04 |
| (no subject) |
| Public |
Sunday June 28, 2009 Saw a wheelchair brand-named "Quickie." The thought came to my mind that it lacked the room for two people to have a quickie.
To the Lake Street Rainbow Foods, to pick up flyers.
On to Cub Foods. Picked up flyers, and checked prices on shelves; mostly in the "nothing over $2" section.
On to Target. Checked grocery prices. I now know that Rainbow's cheapest ketchup is a whopping seventeen cents less than Target's cheapest. (And thirtyseven cents less than Aldi's.)
Devout frugalists search out large numbers of prices at all the supermarkets they use, and keep their price books up-to-date. For a family of six, this might make economic sense. But an economist might suggest also looking at information costs: gasoline used in driving around to supermarkets, to begin with. And opportunity costs: what else could they have done with the time?
On the other hand, I find groceries a source of entertainment. Who buys special salt for Margaritas? Premixed peanut butter and jelly? Is Hispanic spaghetti (imported from Texas; maybe sometimes from Oregon) much different from ordinary spaghetti? Wandering around the supermarkets has benefits as well as costs.
On to Aldi, where I bought groceries.
Tuesday June 30, 2009 To Southwest Senior Center, to use the computer lab.
***Back home, I turned on the radio to see if there was any interesting news. There was.
On November 4, 2008, Al Franken had been elected Senator. So the Minnesota Supreme Court said in a unanimous opinion today.
Would Norm Coleman fight this all the way up to the US Supreme Court? At the beginning, Coleman had led by a slim margin; he said that Franken should do the right thing and not file a ballot challenge. But since then, as the battle went increasingly against him, Coleman hadn't followed his own advice.
Coleman gave a concession speech.
There are activists in both major parties who believe the United States has only one legitimate political party. The Republican ones are going to be very disappointed with Coleman.
Wednesday July 1, 2009 Used the computer lab at Southwest Senior Center.
***To the Wedge Coop. Used the ATM. Bought honey and Canola oil -- small amounts of each. I don't use them up fast enough to make larger amounts at lower unit costs practical.
***To HealthPartners Riverside, to pick up meds.
***On to the Aldi supermarket on Lake Street for most of my groceries.
A solar-powered pickup truck pulled into a nearby parking lot as I was leaving Aldi. It was topped with solar panels. Otherwise, it didn't seem much different from fossil-fuel-powered vehicles. Which I suspect was the point.
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We're talking to a few different nanny candidates. I helped Alex make her own checklist of qualities she is hoping for. This time I'm getting most of my questions out of the way over the phone, so that the interview can focus more on actual interaction between the prospective nanny and each of the kids.
In the meantime, Michael is running down the possibility of hiring a temporary sitter to look after Colin until we hire someone permanent, which should take some of the pressure of the search. We'd keep Alex at school full-time in the interim, because she's a lot more likely to be bothered by changes in caregivers than Colin is.
Colin is at work with me today. Right now he is taking a nap on my desk. I've got his changing pad underneath him, and he's tightly swaddled, and between those two things he is perfectly happy napping surrounded by binders and folders and my tape dispenser. I wish I had a camera.
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| jwz |
| 06 Jul 2009 10:46 |
| A "Dead Ringers" quote here would be traditional. |
| Public |
| C-Tec -- Cut... Lacerate |
| doomed, parts |
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I suspect Andrew Sullivan, despite being wrong on so very many things (and positively creepy in his fixation on Palin's pregnancy) is on the money here. Palin's not going to resign from office. I suspect she may not have realized what she was saying, and how it would play on the national media, when she made her announcement. And she isn't going to worry about her dignity: this is someone who got into a public pissing match with her daughter's ex-boyfriend on the talk show circuit, after all; she doesn't appear to have any awareness of her own dignity.
She's just going to take it back.
Guess we'll see.
(Should we start a pool? Or a poll?)
This entry was originally posted at http://cofax7.dreamwidth.org/649253.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
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| jedediah |
| 06 Jul 2009 10:01 |
| Your favorite photo of you? |
| Public |
http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2009/07/06/11854.html Are any of your favorite photos of you publicly viewable online?
If so, and if you feel like it, post a link to one of them as a comment on this entry. Optionally, include a note about what you like about it.
If you're not comfortable linking to a photo of yourself, you can link to a favorite photo of someone else.
Or, for that matter, a favorite photo in general. But I'm most interested in pictures of you.
(This isn't for a project or anything; I'm just interested in seeing pictures of people, especially ones they like.)
(Wrote this back in February, somehow neglected to post it.)
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I have a netbook!
(I am not currently posting from the netbook, because I need to get antivirus software loaded onto it, but that will happen today, I hope.)
It's a 10" Asus Eee; I played with a couple models at the Big Electronics Store, and decided I needed the 10" keyboard to do anything comfortably (still won't be writing whole novels on it, but it'll work for travel and notetaking and internetz stuffs). I looked at several different brands, went home to think--and discovered Target had the Asus on sale for $100 off. It was A Sign! *g*. For $250, this thing seems to be able to do everything I need a mobile computer to do, and it's truly mobile--can fit into my purse in a pinch, and isn't nearly as heavy as my writing laptop, so I'll be able to hike to the library with it in tow.
So, yay, netbook! I bought this Gelaskin to go on it (and a different one for my iPod, because I've been looking at these things forever), and I have named it Zeke II, after my laptop that was stolen (*sniff*), because "Zeke is a good name for a boy or a girl", and it has that "Eeeee" sound in it, especially when I say, "Zeeeeeeeeke!". Also, because it's supposed to be one tough cookie.*
In other news, the house is nearly clean and the yard is nearly under control. It'll be a July Miracle if it all gets done, but I need some order right now. A really really lot. And I only got enough cherries off my BIL's tree to either make something now, or freeze them to make something in the dead of winter (ie, my birthday). Decisions...
So, howzur Monday?
(*Why don't I have a Crumb icon? I ask you!)
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The contest for an early copy of The Eternal Kiss is closed: thank you all so much for entering! It is deeply, deeply appreciated. I had so much fun seeing everyone's pictures! People with weapons! People dressed up as Mae! It was horribly difficult to choose.
The winner is: demon circles, fever fruit and talismans - drawing summoning circles at three a.m. is my new definition of hardcore.
The winner of another advance copy of The Eternal Kiss, which I obtained by probably nefarious means: Sin, fever blossoms and a demonic penguin.
Email me at sarahreesbrennan@gmail.com, you guys.
Trying to choose honourable mentions actually made me collapse under the sheer weight of awesomeness, but I admit to a particular fondness for Mae in Sydney.
This Friday I will be heading off to the UK to do a number of things, like a photoshoot (Oh God, 2859 pictures of The Distressed Wombat Face) and a debate on Ghosts, Faeries and Demons. I will naturally be arguing on the side of the demons. Evil wins again!
I will also be doing two Lexiglass events. (I made up the name, so I keep gleefully using it at every opportunity...)
The Lexiglass Event
July 11, 2009: Glasgow, Scotland, 3pm
Borders Glasgow. 98 Buchanan Street, Glasgow, G1 3BA
Signing and appearance with Cassandra Clare, who will be launching City of Glass in the UK
The Irish Lexiglass Event
with Cassandra Clare
July 16th 6:30 PM
Eason
40 Lower O'Connell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Then there are some plans for appearances in the US.
For a start, I will be attending Comic Con in San Diego, July 23rd to the 26th.
Events there will be as follows:
Friday, July 24 Panel
12:30-1:30 Future Fond Memories Room 3
Panelists: Michael Spradlin (KEEPER OF THE GRAIL: THE YOUNGEST TEMPLAR); Michael Reisman (SIMON BLOOM: THE OCTOPUS EFFECT ); Sarah Rees Brennan (THE DEMON’S LEXICON); James Owen (THE INDIGO KING); Mary Pearson (THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX), P.J. Haarsma (THE WORM HOLE PIRATES OF ORBIS 3); and Alyson Noel (BLUE MOON: THE IMMORTALS).
Moderator: Maryelizabeth Hart, Mysterious Galaxy
1:30 - 2:30 Signing in the convention's autograph area.
The morning of Saturday the 25th, I will be signing in the Every Picture Tells a Story booth, exact time to be announced.
And for the rest of Comic Con, I will probably be wandering around going 'Oooh, look, a Wonder Woman costume!' and being extremely happy about the weather, so come say hey to me!
Now, I know quite a lot of writers called Sarah. It is, as I have pointed out to my mother while explaining my preference for 'Esmeralda,' a fairly common name. At this stage I believe Sarahs might be numerous enough to take over the world.
Before we do that, though, we're having a Sarah Signing in New York.
1.00 pm - 3.00 pm, Sunday August 2nd. Books of Wonder, 18 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.
Sarahs will include me, our fearless organiser Sarah MacLean (the Season), Sarah Cross (Dull Boy), Sarah Beth Durst (Ice, Into the Wild) and Sarah Ockler (Twenty Boy Summer) with more Sarahs to be announced!
Other US appearances will be in early October, and the details will be enormously awesome, but I cannot tell you them yet!
At all appearances I will have stuff like bookmarks, gel pens, cheery yet insane smiles, and little giveaways of the first chapter of The Demon's Covenant.
And since this post has been all about announcements, something for the rest of you. I would tell a story about my life, but telling stories like 'Yesterday my flatmates found me sticking Post-its ON MY OWN FACE' is too shameful. So instead...
( Frequently Asked Questions about The Demon's Lexicon: GIGANTICALLY HUGE SPOILERS )
If you have other questions, pray ask them and I will answer them! I will add to this post as I go.
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| jesseh |
| 06 Jul 2009 12:34 |
| Reasons yesterday was a good day |
| Public |
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1. Sunshine!
2. Surprise visit from out-of-town friends!
3. Incredible tomatoes! (Seriously, the bacon was good, but the tomato made the BLT.)
4. Reading Victory of Eagles! (Temeraire #5 -- and I would not characterize myself as someone who seeks out Napoleonic war stuff or fantasy, so.)
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It was a long weekend, and between the early rain and the discovery that the Double Vision revision had a major structural problem we didn't get to the ocean for the 4th of July weekend or fireworks, the first time that's happened in some years. We also avoided the local fireworks, which are always super jammed and which would have had us standing in afield of mud with the crying kids and inevitable nervous dogs ...
nope, I do NOT trust your dog just because he's your dog.
The upshot of the long weekend is that I'm going to need more eyes on a new Double Vision proof, and I'll be spending some time sending out notes to folks telling them the book is, yes, late, and that it is, yes, my fault. I hate when that happens.
In other news, I've volunteered to help out at the SFWA dealers room table at Worldcon, so if you can't locate me otherwise, that's a place to start. We *do* have out hotel rooms; I hear from some people that they're still not sure where they'll be. And yes, according to our hotel it will cost us close to $150 to $200 to park the car for a week -- so it's like renting an extra room one night. Alas, getting to Montreal by train is much less convenient for us since we'd have to drive 6 hours to catch a train, and then take the train and etc, or drive 5 3/4 hours to get to Montreal.
Breaking news: the reversion letters from Penguin (Ace) have just arrived here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory and are being forwarded to our agent. What this means is, basically, the Meisha Merlin era is now really over for us except perhaps for a few overseas non-English contracts. Finally.
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http://www.arghink.com/2009/07/06/making-up/ http://www.arghink.com/?p=1464 I have to give a speech in Columbus on Wednesday and then several speeches/appearances in a couple of weeks at RWA National in DC. I’ve been avoiding speeches because they suck up so much time that I need to be writing–I’m so far behind on AKMG it isn’t funny, although I’ve made huge strides in figuring out the plot and I even have an ending I LIKE now–but this time Susanne Jaffe from Thurber House asked, and I can’t say no to Susanne. Also it’s Thurber House, where I used to volunteer. It’d be like saying no to Book & Co. But the bad thing about giving speeches is that people show up to see what you look like. Right now, I look like hell, which is okay because the dogs and the squirrels and the buzzards don’t care that I’ve put on even more weight, that my hair looks like Mad Madam Mim’s and that I don’t wear make-up. But generally speaking, you go into populated areas and stand up on a stage, people expect things like support garments and lipstick. Which means I have to sort through the wreck that is my bedroom/bathroom (I’m painting the walls, which at the moment have three different colors on them while I try to decide) and find the approximately two hundred bottles, jars, cans, and sticks of face paint that I have bought in desperation at other moments like this one and see if I can remember what to do with any of it.
The problem is, I’m really not a fan of make-up. I look at those stars-without-make-up pictures and invariably think they look better without. Of course the difference beween the with and without in those cases is also without great lighting and airbrushing since the with pictures are almost always studio shots and the without are candid snaps, but to me, most of withouts look like very attractive real people who look their ages. Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to make it as an explanation when I hit the stage. “I think I look better without make-up and also that you’ll relate to me better and also . . .” Sounds like an excuse to me.
Using those pictures as a guide, it’s pretty clear that the two most important things that make-up does is even out skin-tone and highlight eyes, keeping in mind that the airbrushing in the studio shots does that, too. I grew up during the sixties, so I have a natural inclination to Cleopatra eyes which I have to fight, but I can usually get a thin strip of liner on and manage to bring my lashes back from blonde without sticking the wand in my eye. It’s the foundation that gets me. I’ve tried them all, liquids, creams, powders, and they all feel the same way: icky. Basically, you’re putting stuff on your skin and if it’s my skin, it lies there on top of the permanent pool of oil and eventually slides off. I know there are products that will cut the oil so the make-up can sink in, but then I feel like my skin is suffocating. You know, guys don’t have to do this. They wash their faces and that’s it. Why us?
I know, I know, women are judged on their looks, men on their success, thus it has always been, thus it always shall be. Biology is destiny. Okay, FINE. I went to makeuptip.com and found out that:
Tip: To know “where to glow” bend over for 30 seconds, then slowly stand up. Where your cheeks are flushed is where you are meant to blush. Apply your blush there and it will be naturally rosy every time.
Setting aside the double meanings that made me snicker (I’m a cheap laugh), that makes my entire face beet red. Remember when poor Victorians used to pinch their cheeks for natural blush? I may go that route. If you see the speech and I keep pinching my own cheeks, that’s why.
There there are the eye tips:
3. For a sexy, smoky effect, trace the upper and lower lashes with a dark shadow then smudge with a blending brush. To optimize the look, this can also be done over eyeliner.
I’m going to be sixty in September. You know what I look like with dark shadow smudged around my eyes? An extra from Barfly.
I know, I know, quit bitching and just put the stuff on.
So I will suck it up and paint my face, but what I really want to know is, if we’re so damn evolved and liberated, why are we spending a fortune on goo that we don’t need? If we all went without make-up, wouldn’t the world get used to women without make-up and adapt? Or is make-up a good thing and I’m just too lazy to acknowledge it? I’m open to convincing. At least until I have to put the stuff on again.
Then, I’m gonna be bitter.
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| oxforddnb_feed |
| 06 Jul 2009 16:21 |
| Ashes cricket, 1: are these the greatest Australia and England XIs? |
| Public |
http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/ashes/ None
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| oxforddnb_feed |
| 06 Jul 2009 16:57 |
| New ODNB update: special focus on engineers of daily life, featuring loo pioneers and father of recy |
| Public |
http://www.oup.com/oxforddnb/info/prelims/may09/ May update, feature article
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| oxforddnb_feed |
| 06 Jul 2009 16:57 |
| ODNB update, 2: green and pleasant land--clickable map of Great British gardeners |
| Public |
http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/gardeners/ Interactive map, May update
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| cofax7 |
| 06 Jul 2009 09:17 |
| Monday linkspam: SF/books, tv, some mild wtf |
| Public |
| books, meta, tv |
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There's always been a question about how to define science fiction. I won't run through the definitions which have been offered through the years, although my current favorite is, IIRC, Lois Bujold's, who says that science fiction is fiction which is written in conversation with/response to the genre of science fiction. Which is, yeah, kind of recursive, but it does at least capture why it's so hard to fit McCarthy's The Road into the genre (as a fr'instance). In any event, Paul Kincaid says we shouldn't try to define it. (Or so I think from the title: haven't read the essay yet.) [Link ganked from Torque Control]
Also via Torque Control, Debbie Notkin and Karen Fowler are producing a festschrift (celebratory volume) for Ursula LeGuin's 80th birthday this October. They are seeking contributions. ::looks meaningfully at ![[info - personal]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) coffeeandink, among others::
Here's the first review I've seen of Greer Gilman's (nineweaving) new collection, Cloud & Ashes. I should get it, but I'm afraid I no longer have the attention span to do Gilman justice: I found myself unable to reread Moonwise when I picked up again last year, to my shame. Still. ::ponders::
Hey, I didn't know Kim Stanley Robinson had written a historical novel. Coolness!
Via Boing Boing: Tim O'Reilly in Forbes on why the Kindle needs to go DRM-free.
The Guardian has a piece on the cultural impact of the Moon landing.
ETA (because I forgot): I know he has failed on some important stuff, but I still can't help being enthusiastic about the president. Where is my cynicism! End edit.
*
In other news, SG-1 fans may be interested to discover that SF Signal is watching and reviewing the entire series, one episode a day. They only just started season 1, so you've plenty of time to catch up and comment.
Oh yay, Eureka comes back this week! SciFi Wire has a ton of spoilers about the season.
*
Judith Tarr is looking for silly horse stories. I'm sure agentotter can oblige?
Elsewhere on Book View Cafe, I find this proposal baffling. It's okay to prevent someone from publishing a for-profit work that uses your own characters, except when that character has entered the public conversation and you think it's important to engage in dialogue or critique with the original. But you still can't write fanfic using that character--only for-profit work that qualifies as "critical". wtf.
Y'all might notice that I'm crossposting from DW, but I'm eagerly awaiting the date when Gmail sorts comment responses by originating posts, the way it does for LJ responses. This piling of all DW comment responses together is untenable.
This entry was originally posted at http://cofax7.dreamwidth.org/648975.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
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We had a great time down in Pigeon Forge this weekend. The fireworks were awesome - they lasted about 20 minutes, and we were so close to the launch site that from our spot sitting on the hotel's balcony we could hear them being shot off! We're definitely making July 4th our annual trip down to Pigeon Forge, although the crowds leaving town on Sunday made the traffic ridiculous.
Here's today's LOLCat. I just love his expression, don't you?
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
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| jonsinger |
| 06 Jul 2009 11:44 |
| Oilspot Update -- |
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As I mentioned in the previous posting, one of the things I would like to have is an oilspot glaze that makes bright, distinct silver spots. This is certainly possible, but it appears to be nontrivial to achieve if you don’t want to add a quantity of cobalt to your recipe. (Been there, done that, like it fairly well; but I want something different this time.)
I thought about some things I’ve seen, including a photo of a teabowl that was reported to have been reduced accidentally. It is warped and slumped, and very silvery. This led me to conjecture that it might be useful to reduce the glaze late in the firing, after it has had a chance to form spots. (Early reduction tends to prevent the spots from forming.)
The tile in this photo (which is covered with a 50-50 mixture of the two glazes from the previous posting) was reduced for a while, starting when the temperature in the kiln reached 1225° Celsius; and again for a few minutes shortly before the end of the firing, with the temperature a little above 1290:
 The stripe down the middle is a wash that I often use on high-iron glazes that I fire in reduction. I did not expect it to do anything exciting in a largely oxidizing firing, but I wanted to be entirely certain. The spots, while not silver in color, are significantly more distinct and a lot more reflective than the spots I got in the electric kiln, and they are sweetly variegated in color. In addition, the glaze smoothed out much better in this firing. This one is decidedly a keeper, and I will be making up a bucket of it. Cheers — jon
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I was passing through my newsual agents this morning, and picked up an extra copy of the Radio Times with the Torchwood cover, so if any of my overseas friends are interested, drop me a line and I'll pop it in the post for you. First come etc. etc.
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More autoshoujo, as I contemplate NOT breaking things because of CSS issues in Wordpress themes (creating themes for the various blogs at work. It isn't the smoothest of processes...)
We've also got the third entry in the AutoShoujo Cover Contest up. :D
( cut for your SANITY )
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Every skill can be broken down into two parts. There are the things you need to do, and the things you need to not do. The ability to not do the things you're not supposed to do is called behavioral inhibition, and in many contexts it's an invisible, hard-to-identify component of learning.
Not so when you're four or five months old. When Colin first started to be interested in reaching and grabbing, he spent a lot of time with his hands clasped in front of him. Why? Because when he reached out, pretty often the first thing his hand would encounter would be the other hand. He didn't know how not to grab it, even if he'd initially been reaching for something else.
He's since mastered the ability to inhibit himself from grabbing that other hand, but he's still working on a couple of other inhibition issues. When he tries to put a toy into his mouth, sometimes he'll aim it wrong and get the hand holding the toy into his mouth instead. Someday soon he'll be able to take that as a sign that he should turn the toy so he can chew on his real target. Right now he just gnaws on his hand, the toy hanging in front of his mouth out of reach. If he gets the toy angled right, great! If not, he can't inhibit the chewing response and redirect himself.
Also, he really wants to spend a lot of time these days holding his feet. But his thighs are in the way. He winds up holding his thighs or gripping behind his knees, even when he was clearly aiming for the feet. He just can't stop himself from grabbing on, even if holding his thighs prevents him from what he really wants to do.
I learned about behavioral inhibition in developmental psychology classes, but it has become so much more real through observation.
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| rm |
| 06 Jul 2009 11:31 |
| sundries |
| Public |
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Despite a weekend that included a migraine, a really bad sunburn (ow!) and a UTI, we had an amazing weekend with food and shopping and lots of outdoor time and yet somehow not feeling too rushed and just... awesome.
Torchwood! Man, I'm worried, and I think it's going to be gutting, but I also think it's really going to honour the characters. For those of us that survived Potterdammerung, this is a nice change of pace. I will never stop being bitter about the Snake Bubble to the Head.
God bless Cipro. I still feel like shit, but I feel less like shit. Also, first time I've used the health insurance since I've had it over the last few years; nice to know it actually works, and that 24-clinic situation is pretty rad. No more whining about not having time to go to the doctor, and as awkward as it was, it wasn't as awkward as it could have been (and honestly, they were less dumb than Callen-Lorde (that, you know, finds lesbians boring) when the whole undiagnosed celiac thing went down).
When I've a moment, reviews of TW tie-in material; some fanfic I wrote on the beach yesterday (we must, I feel, examine Ianto's hatred of Delhi, and Jack's irritation with same, also I love putting the team on airplanes together, no idea why).
Gotta post various Stuff I Am Doing at Cons and Where I'm Going to Be announcements when I've half a brain.
Renewed my Broad Universe membership.
Garden update: 1 big Klari-Baby-Cheese pepper coming along well. Green Zebra tomatoes almost ready to eat. Buds on the three replacement tomato plants. At least three, and I think more, tiny tomatos on fourth tomato replacement plant. 2 tiny peppers on the Paprika that seem to be growing well, and flowers finally opening on the hot pepper plant. Herbs doing well. I think we've finally got this garden thing under control.
Patty is going to London for business in April 2010. I'm thinking of tagging along (exchange rate be damned) and popping up to Cardiff for a day or so. Dorky? Yes. But 1) when else would I do this? and 2) I almost went to Cardiff on vacation like five years ago for also dorky, but not DW/TW related reasons, so why the fuck not?
Still need to see Public Enemies.
Book sales are pretty rad right now. Last night there was "only 2 left in stock" on Amazon, then 1, then this morning they were back in stock, now there are only 4 left in with more on the way. I guess the new movie release is doing me some major favors. Oh hey, back down to 2! And now we're in stock again!
I am listening to Edith Piaf. That makes everything better.
Burbles about the ongoing fencing narrative are coming my way. Interesting burbles.
Okay, while the original Waffle House Challenge failed, a different challenge issued to a different friend about a different person of note didn't. Hahahahaah.
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http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=7513 From the people who brought you THINGS OUR FRIENDS HAVE WRITTEN ON THE INTERNET 2008, a new and potentially very important venture: The Newspaper Club.
We’re building a service to help people make their own newspapers.
What do we mean by people? Individuals, communities, clubs, societies, companies, friends, gangs. You know; people.
What do we mean by newspapers? Anything you can make by putting ink on newsprint. We think lots of people will want to make things that are quite like the sort of newspapers we already know. But we also hope to encourage people to reinvent what newspapers could be.
They’re also running a blog.
I’ll get into this later once I’m past the bulk of the day’s work, but I think this could be really, really interesting. Also ref. PEAR emerging as a newspaper. (Which I also need to talk more about, because it’s a really fucking interesting newspaper)
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From the people who brought you THINGS OUR FRIENDS HAVE WRITTEN ON THE INTERNET 2008, a new and potentially very important venture: The Newspaper Club.
We’re building a service to help people make their own newspapers.
What do we mean by people? Individuals, communities, clubs, societies, companies, friends, gangs. You know; people.
What do we mean by newspapers? Anything you can make by putting ink on newsprint. We think lots of people will want to make things that are quite like the sort of newspapers we already know. But we also hope to encourage people to reinvent what newspapers could be.
They’re also running a blog.
I’ll get into this later once I’m past the bulk of the day’s work, but I think this could be really, really interesting. Also ref. PEAR emerging as a newspaper. (Which I also need to talk more about, because it’s a really fucking interesting newspaper)
(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)
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| corrinalaw |
| 06 Jul 2009 11:12 |
| Sherlock Holmes on Geek Dad |
| Public |
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New post for this morning.
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/07/sherlock-holmes-in-connecticut/
I think the first big indication that I was a hopeless geek was when I discovered "Hound of the Baskervilles" in the junior high library in 7th grade. I loved the book so much that I started repeating passages from it to my girlfriends.
They were not amused. :sigh:
Undaunted, I grabbed The Annotated Sherlock Holmes by W.S. Baring-Gould from my mail order book club and not only did I start memorizing the stories, I started memorizing all of Baring-Gould's careful notes and introduction. Where did Watson get shot? How many times? And just how many times was the man married, anyway?
Not to mention trying to figure out what Holmes' past was like. When I got to "The Greek Interpreter" and discovered he had a brother, that was BIG.
Right now, I have in my book collection the new Annotated Holmes edition (nice slipcover) and various Holmes novels written by others, including Nicolas Meyer's books, Laurie R. King's Holmes/Russell series (though not the new one), and I've read books my Manly Wade Wellman, among others.
Anyway, if you're able to take a day trip to the Gillette estate in Connecticut, it's definitely worth the drive, not only for the Holmes stuff but the grounds are amazing and the view is perfect.
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So here's my schedule. It's very concentrated because I have to leave for ALA early Sunday morning. I will, however, be there all day Saturday, and pretty much free for conversation in odd corners.
Friday:
11:00am--Seeds of Poe
Charnas, Datlow, Hand, Sherman, Straub, Gary Wolfe (m)
1:30pm--Reading from Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen
4:30pm--Words As Magic
Crowley, Gilman, Klages, Sherman (m), Gene Wolfe
9:00pm--Kaffeeklatch
Smith, Sherman
Saturday
11:00am--Autographing
Prineas, Sherman, Datlow
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Okay, guys, it's homework time! Except it's really easy homework. I have to do all the work.
I'm giving a lecture about young adult literature in late July, so I'm doing research, and I figured I'd go to my lovely flist here and on Myspace for some good data.
Feel free to post elaboration in the comments!
( Poll ahoy! Click and deliver! )
There. That was painless, right? Walk it off, man. Walk it off.
-- Rachel
ETA: Sorry about some of the questions not being on target. Best I could do on one cuppa Starbucks and off the top of my head. But honestly, "all of the above" doesn't help much when you're trying to parse data, and I can't edit a poll once it's open, so if one reason applies more than another, go with that one, 'k? Thanks!
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Read my review of Rudy Wurlitzer's classic surreal novel NOG here:
http://tinyurl.com/kvl3xj
Posted by Paul DiFi.
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So I was gone all weekend for the 4th. We slept in a tent and it was usually between 40 and 60 degrees for the duration of the trip. We had a blast, I won at chicken poop bingo, and I love being up in the woods and stuff. So refreshing.
So anyway we got back about 4pm yesterday and so I hunkered down and made my hat for my costume. Pictures are under the cut. I unfortunately don't have any pictures of it as it was being made, I did the whole thing in an evening and I didn't think to pick up my camera! There are also pictures of me in the dress as it is so far (without the hat). It's the first trial run for fit!
( Pykshurs )Thanks for looking! (crossposted to my own LJ)
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| dressaday_feed |
| 06 Jul 2009 08:48 |
| This Week's Pattern Story (and sale) |
| Public |
http://www.dressaday.com/2009/07/this-weeks-pattern-story-and-sale.html
 PICTURE CAPTION, JUVENILE DETENTION QUARTERLY: Teenagers at the Arkham Home For Wayward Girls live surprisingly normal lives, given the magnitude of the crimes they have committed. There are supervised outings for mini-golf (on a closed course); they have ice cream sundaes on Thursdays. They talk on the phone to young men from the Arkham Boy's Home (although no visits; most of the boys are serving adult sentences). Their smocks, though not fashionable, are not institutional; the girls are allowed to pick their own fabrics and sew the smocks themselves, in Home Ec. "Trustys" (those without violent or suicidal impulses) are even allowed belts! And thanks to the generosity of the Tangee corporation, all the girls have ample supplies of lipstick and face powder. [Pattern from What-I-Found Sewing Patterns.] Oh, and here's the sale: at the EmmaLizz etsy shop, this Monday through Sunday (July 6th-12th) get 15% off your entire purchase plus free shipping. Just include the code "ADressADay" in the comments of your PayPal payment and Emily will refund the 15% and shipping back to you (since she can't do coupon codes at checkout). (What's EmmaLizz? Dress- and sewing-themed stationery!)
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I picked this book up because I'm trying to suss out where I want to submit HERO once Dan is done giving it a once-over, and in so doing I have been very heavily surfing publishing sites for places that publish m/m fiction, reading submission calls and weeding out publishers by their formatting/presence/type of work offered. I'd seen A Strong Hand reviewed on a few sites, so when I found it again on Dreamspinner I decided it was time to give it a try.
Obviously from my garbled squee last night, I was blown away. It isn't so much that this is some amazing, earth-shattering book that the whole world must read, but more that it hit all the right spots for me and succeeded in doing what mainstream NY published romances have utterly failed to do for me for years: carry me off. Ford has a beautiful, easy style: she knows how to use words, but she doesn't beat you with them or pause to bask in her own power (the reason I usually retch when I read lit fiction). Nice, clean, sharp style that gets the hell out of the way and lets the story shine. But more important than this (though I do adore clean style) is that she just nailed, nailed, nailed character.
The two heroes, Nick and Damian, are real people, with real motivations and real reservations, and the plot is, essentially, their navigation of their relationship. Ford pulls off what is so damn hard in a romance: the reader knows the whole time that these two belong together, knows they both love the other, but we have to wait until the end to see it happen. And it works. The distance between the two men is something that needs to be navigated, and it needs to take the time Ford gives them. My favorite part is that Damian's fears regarding Nick's potential affection are particularly spot-on: Nick didn't even consider that he might be gay before Damian, and he is a lot younger. There's a lot of sense in thinking that while the relationship means a lot to Damian, it might just be a stepping stone for Nick. And so the novel feels like the space and struggle the two of them need to find themselves, and one another.
I am a sucker for well-explored vulnerabilities, and this book is full of that. But the real treat in this story is the BDSM angle. I have run into a few BDSM stories in my day, and generally I have needed to run away. I hesitated on this book because I was afraid of that element, but one of the reviews I read made it sound like it was very BDSM-light, and since the premise was that we would be watching a young man's exploration of this lifestyle, I hoped I would be able to "experience" a bit of this without feeling unsafe. This is, very much, what A Strong Hand was for me. The story took me right to the edge of my comfort zone, but never pushed me over. My favorite parts, actually, were when Nick used their safe word, "London," and when (even better) Damian prompted him to use it, recognizing when he didn't that it was time to stop. The thrill here wasn't the danger or naughtiness of BDSM but the beauty of it, and the display of love and trust that the heroes' relationship revealed.
A Strong Hand is an incredibly sensual story, but the most erotic and exotic aspect of it is the exploration of the two male characters, who, after two hundred pages, we leave quite convinced they are a solid and nearly perfect match. Along the way we get a titillating, thrilling, and satisfying ride.
What more do you want? Buy it here. And consider her backlist. I know I am.
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Theme week again! This time, I'll be picking from alphaDictionary.coms list of The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English, while being careful not to repeat ones I've already done, like petrichor and aestivate.
odalisque - n., a female slave or concubine in a harem.
Especially the Sultan of Turkey's harem. In use in English since 1681, from French, alteration from odalique, from Turkish odalιk (yes, that's an i without a dot), concubine, from oda, room + -lιk, noun suffix expressing function -- so, a "room person/thing".
---L.
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EDIT: The card drawing is now closed! I will be drawing your cards throughout the day. Thanks for your patience! :)
This month there are no sponsors. Instead, if you feel moved, tip me using the button at the bottom of this entry. You do not need to pay me for your card! You can request a card whether you donate or not.
( The Rules, Suggested Uses and Warnings )
What is this all about?
The Balance Cards are a personal revelatory deck I created to address the imbalances in the world and bring them into harmony. The One-Card Draw is a service I offer as frequently as I have the energy, but I also do full readings. Consult the Balance Cards website for more information.
Ask and receive. The Balance Cards Website.
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