I think I have to post a pic or two here and there as I find them
Feb. 9th, 2010 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
commodorifiedThis set are by the fabulous Holly:
High Class In Borrowed... Flannel.
Anyone can look good at 40. Given enough spackle. :-)
Chapeaus. Avec Le Kickitude. Also Avec Les Temporarily Confusing Attachment Systems.
Hold on to your forks; there's CAKE. I told you all that Mel is AWESOME, yes?
High Class In Borrowed... Flannel.
Anyone can look good at 40. Given enough spackle. :-)
Chapeaus. Avec Le Kickitude. Also Avec Les Temporarily Confusing Attachment Systems.
Hold on to your forks; there's CAKE. I told you all that Mel is AWESOME, yes?
(no subject)
Feb. 10th, 2010 01:47 amafunaOh yay, hollywood round of AI starts tomorrow. I can take or leave the other bits, but the hollywood round I don't want to miss :)
I'm awake now; why are you all GONE? *wails*
Feb. 9th, 2010 12:32 pmcommodorifiedI sort of feel like all I've said to anyone for three days is "Oh My God Thank You So Much", and it still isn't enough. It really never will be. We are loved and blessed and overflowing with good fortune.
So many people came amazing distances, some with great effort, to be with us in our crazy and our joy. More tried hard and for one reason or another couldn't make it work. We love you all so much.
We wanted it to be All About Community and Oh My God it sure was.
torrain was the Best Bride Ever in 2007 and the best Matron of Honour ever in 2010. I can't even. She listened and made phone calls and did improbable errands and made random the most stunning kilt hose garters, and and and...
con_girl and foms and A. showed up at our house one night with food and hugs and fed us and helped us label wine bottles and hugged us some more and offered us hats and went away and left us to it.
kd5mdk was a pillar of strength and a tower of society from the moment he arrived. I kept saying "Andrew? Can you just .... handle that?" and magically, the path would smooth and the way would open. Ladies' maid, gentleman's gentleman, water-carrier, bottle washer, personal assistant, secretary and all around miracle, the man can apparently do anything with nothing. We hereby nominate him for the Ivan Vorpatril Award for Extraordinary Henching Under Fire.
meieresque made the venue look beautiful and did a thousand other things to get us ready, organised, and all pointed in the right direction.
pecunium made breakfast for 22 on Saturday, took amazing photos on Sunday - in dress blues, making him the Prettiest Photographer Ever - and reassured me a million times that people love me even when I am trying to herd too many cats and it turns me into Little Ms Shoutypants.
dagibbs hosted parties and out of town guests and listened to us and hugged us and dropped by for drinks and dragged us out for pho when we needed it.
buttongirl made us the two most beautiful dresses ever, and two utterly spectacular hats, under incredible time pressure, and made it fun to boot. She and D. also lent us bedding for dagibbs' House Of Wedding Bed and (if you make it yourself) Breakfast.
themeletor made us incredible cakes, under even worse time pressure. I don't know when she slept, or even if. I do know that when she flew home she still had icing in her hair. :-)
tenacious_snail was the Best Officiant Ever, and surrounded us with love and calmness and laughter and, when we needed it, food.
bipagan organised the Madison contingent and got them all here in good order and good spirits, accompanied by quite a lot of fairestcat's stuff.
lovelokest and izzy andspiritbomber and oliviacirce and sasha_feather hauled stuff to Ottawa and helped us clean up and get where we were going and made all the furniture moving and stuff hauling at the venue happen, on time and in style.
Tim and Ed moved chairs and brooms and mountains and made it all happen perfectly and in style.
rottenfruit got my hair up and tamed, and pecunium's as well.
northbard and tormenta and mycrazyhair and corbet gave us a place to sleep and a wonderful breakfast when we were in Toronto Desperately Seeking Shoes.
con_girl and bipagan and northbard and invokation called quarters for us, beautifully.
amazon_syren loved us and hugged us and lent me her apartment for a night.
Pat and Don made us amazing food and unblinkingly tackled a two-page list of food restrictions so that everyone could eat and did ten thousand other amazing things.
Willow found us plates and cutlery and glasses we could borrow, for a donation we could easily afford, to a cause we support. The Ottawa Folk Festival trusted us with their plates and cutlery, and the Bronson Centre with their glassware.
mikepictor lent Ian his nicest kilt.
ironphoenix and soul_diaspora and ilanikhan lent bedding, and ilanikhan ran to the fabric store. Repeatedly. ironphoenix made getting to and from multiple dress fittings in Kanata, after our poor car suddenly died, in viciously cold weather, amost fun instead of hair-raisingly evil.
ami_b helped me run Stitch and Bitch (which will happen again next week and will finally not be All Wedding Flail All The Time) and told us where to find a really good bra.
TSivia, who couldn't even be there, lent us all manner of useful stuff and gave us amazing love and support.
And having done all of these things, when thanked and hugged and tearfully told they were wonderful, all of these people insisted that it had been a pleasure. I love you all, and you are all quite mad.
And I am quite sure I've forgotten people; please remind me in comments if you saw some fabulous person doing some glorious thing that I missed in the haze of excitement and tiredness and flail?
So many people came amazing distances, some with great effort, to be with us in our crazy and our joy. More tried hard and for one reason or another couldn't make it work. We love you all so much.
We wanted it to be All About Community and Oh My God it sure was.
torrain was the Best Bride Ever in 2007 and the best Matron of Honour ever in 2010. I can't even. She listened and made phone calls and did improbable errands and made random the most stunning kilt hose garters, and and and... con_girl and foms and A. showed up at our house one night with food and hugs and fed us and helped us label wine bottles and hugged us some more and offered us hats and went away and left us to it. kd5mdk was a pillar of strength and a tower of society from the moment he arrived. I kept saying "Andrew? Can you just .... handle that?" and magically, the path would smooth and the way would open. Ladies' maid, gentleman's gentleman, water-carrier, bottle washer, personal assistant, secretary and all around miracle, the man can apparently do anything with nothing. We hereby nominate him for the Ivan Vorpatril Award for Extraordinary Henching Under Fire. meieresque made the venue look beautiful and did a thousand other things to get us ready, organised, and all pointed in the right direction. pecunium made breakfast for 22 on Saturday, took amazing photos on Sunday - in dress blues, making him the Prettiest Photographer Ever - and reassured me a million times that people love me even when I am trying to herd too many cats and it turns me into Little Ms Shoutypants. dagibbs hosted parties and out of town guests and listened to us and hugged us and dropped by for drinks and dragged us out for pho when we needed it. buttongirl made us the two most beautiful dresses ever, and two utterly spectacular hats, under incredible time pressure, and made it fun to boot. She and D. also lent us bedding for dagibbs' House Of Wedding Bed and (if you make it yourself) Breakfast. themeletor made us incredible cakes, under even worse time pressure. I don't know when she slept, or even if. I do know that when she flew home she still had icing in her hair. :-)tenacious_snail was the Best Officiant Ever, and surrounded us with love and calmness and laughter and, when we needed it, food. bipagan organised the Madison contingent and got them all here in good order and good spirits, accompanied by quite a lot of fairestcat's stuff. lovelokest and izzy andspiritbomber and oliviacirce and sasha_feather hauled stuff to Ottawa and helped us clean up and get where we were going and made all the furniture moving and stuff hauling at the venue happen, on time and in style. Tim and Ed moved chairs and brooms and mountains and made it all happen perfectly and in style.
rottenfruit got my hair up and tamed, and pecunium's as well.northbard and tormenta and mycrazyhair and corbet gave us a place to sleep and a wonderful breakfast when we were in Toronto Desperately Seeking Shoes. con_girl and bipagan and northbard and invokation called quarters for us, beautifully. amazon_syren loved us and hugged us and lent me her apartment for a night. Pat and Don made us amazing food and unblinkingly tackled a two-page list of food restrictions so that everyone could eat and did ten thousand other amazing things.
Willow found us plates and cutlery and glasses we could borrow, for a donation we could easily afford, to a cause we support. The Ottawa Folk Festival trusted us with their plates and cutlery, and the Bronson Centre with their glassware.
mikepictor lent Ian his nicest kilt. ironphoenix and soul_diaspora and ilanikhan lent bedding, and ilanikhan ran to the fabric store. Repeatedly. ironphoenix made getting to and from multiple dress fittings in Kanata, after our poor car suddenly died, in viciously cold weather, amost fun instead of hair-raisingly evil. ami_b helped me run Stitch and Bitch (which will happen again next week and will finally not be All Wedding Flail All The Time) and told us where to find a really good bra. TSivia, who couldn't even be there, lent us all manner of useful stuff and gave us amazing love and support.
And having done all of these things, when thanked and hugged and tearfully told they were wonderful, all of these people insisted that it had been a pleasure. I love you all, and you are all quite mad.
And I am quite sure I've forgotten people; please remind me in comments if you saw some fabulous person doing some glorious thing that I missed in the haze of excitement and tiredness and flail?
pumpin iron:
Feb. 9th, 2010 09:00 am![[syndicated profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
icanhascheezburger_feed
pumpin iron: ur doin it wrong
but i needz to keep mah rezolushun
Picture by: dunno source Caption by: msmith3492 via Our LOL Builder
(no subject)
Feb. 9th, 2010 04:21 pmursulav_feedHoly crap, just got a note from my agent--Dragonbreath earned out in October!
For non-authors, that means that author royalties on sales finally exceeded the big bag of money they plonked down as my advance. Essentially, in October I started making money on Dragonbreath sales, instead of on the publisher's faith in Dragonbreath sales. (Actually, a little sooner than that--October's just the end of that royalty period. Publishing has very, very long lead time on pay periods.) So they send me a check for the extra royalties earned in that period (not huge amounts, and it goes straight into the pay-Ursula's-taxes-next-year pile*, but much better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!) and everything Dragonbreath earned after that point is just gravy!
I honestly never expected to earn out--not because I don't have faith in the book, but I cut my teeth doing RPG illustrations, when "we'll pay you royalties" meant "free art" so even though it was actually rather likely, my brain didn't process it as possible. This is so exciting!
While the vast majority of sales occurred during that pay period, a few more will probably trickle in--I'm pretty sure we went back to press at least once--and there's also a "reserve against returns", which means that the publisher is holding onto about a quarter of the supposed sales, just in case they come back from the bookstores. So eventually they'll send me a check for that, too, assuming that they don't come back. (Authors like to bitch about reserve against return, but the publishers do kinda need it--if you sell fifty thousand copies, and you get ninety percent of them back from the store a couple months later, you are up a creek, and if you already paid the author for fifty thousand bucks worth of sales, you are up a much bigger creek. The general complaint, I think, is that they hold the reserve much too long, rather than its existence at all.)
So this was fantastic news all around! Yay!
*This is a Very Important Pile. I cannot stress the importance of this pile enough.
For non-authors, that means that author royalties on sales finally exceeded the big bag of money they plonked down as my advance. Essentially, in October I started making money on Dragonbreath sales, instead of on the publisher's faith in Dragonbreath sales. (Actually, a little sooner than that--October's just the end of that royalty period. Publishing has very, very long lead time on pay periods.) So they send me a check for the extra royalties earned in that period (not huge amounts, and it goes straight into the pay-Ursula's-taxes-next-year pile*, but much better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!) and everything Dragonbreath earned after that point is just gravy!
I honestly never expected to earn out--not because I don't have faith in the book, but I cut my teeth doing RPG illustrations, when "we'll pay you royalties" meant "free art" so even though it was actually rather likely, my brain didn't process it as possible. This is so exciting!
While the vast majority of sales occurred during that pay period, a few more will probably trickle in--I'm pretty sure we went back to press at least once--and there's also a "reserve against returns", which means that the publisher is holding onto about a quarter of the supposed sales, just in case they come back from the bookstores. So eventually they'll send me a check for that, too, assuming that they don't come back. (Authors like to bitch about reserve against return, but the publishers do kinda need it--if you sell fifty thousand copies, and you get ninety percent of them back from the store a couple months later, you are up a creek, and if you already paid the author for fifty thousand bucks worth of sales, you are up a much bigger creek. The general complaint, I think, is that they hold the reserve much too long, rather than its existence at all.)
So this was fantastic news all around! Yay!
*This is a Very Important Pile. I cannot stress the importance of this pile enough.
(no subject)
Feb. 9th, 2010 03:20 pmursulav_feedYesterday, in D&D, I talked a magic door into opening. I admired its closedness at great length, compared it favorably to far more exalted doors which were not half so closed, and then suggested that we take a journey together to openness. Would the door come with me? Would it prove that it was a door-of-all-trades, a door who could do both closed and open with equal style?*
Kevin tells me that if the art thing doesn't work out, I may have a future in motivational speaking, at least to architecture. The rest of the party informs me that I am not allowed to have a pet door, unless I find a very small one--a pygmy door, perhaps even a teacup door.
Then we fought dust devils and apparently all nearly died, although we didn't actually realize it at the time. ("Pfff, four hit points! I can still kick ass on four hit points!")
*This is why I took all that Diplomacy. The initial roll wasn't great, but he gave it to me anyway for the speech.
Kevin tells me that if the art thing doesn't work out, I may have a future in motivational speaking, at least to architecture. The rest of the party informs me that I am not allowed to have a pet door, unless I find a very small one--a pygmy door, perhaps even a teacup door.
Then we fought dust devils and apparently all nearly died, although we didn't actually realize it at the time. ("Pfff, four hit points! I can still kick ass on four hit points!")
*This is why I took all that Diplomacy. The initial roll wasn't great, but he gave it to me anyway for the speech.
Dont be so surprised. She’s
Feb. 9th, 2010 06:00 amicanhascheezburger_feed
Dont be so surprised. She’s got thumbs and knows where the gusshy fud is. Also I kind of like her.
Picture by: dunno source Caption by: tovha via Advanced Lol Builder
Cross-language.... something
Feb. 9th, 2010 10:59 pmafunaTrying to find an English word which sounds out like "ng+g" (not necessarily spelled that way), to prove (or maybe disprove) a point in a conversation.
I thought "finger" was close, but it turns out it's pronounced "fin+ger", rather than "fing+ger", huh.
I thought "finger" was close, but it turns out it's pronounced "fin+ger", rather than "fing+ger", huh.
(no subject)
Feb. 9th, 2010 08:55 amcopperbadgeSome mornings, I wish I could clock into my job with extra force. I wish for Extreme Timecards.
I feel like I should get -- not more money, but somehow a little stamp next to my name on days like today, when half the staff totally fucked off because there's two inches of snow on the ground and a light dusting of it in the air. If I made it here from the Sheridan El stop, which is an open platform three stories off the ground with no windbreaks, you bastards with cars can damn well make the effort. And if you won't, I should get a gold star next to my name when I clock in.
And a cookie.
BossBoss is in today though, good man himself. Yesterday we were LOLing just before I left work, because my mother emailed me that there was a "Snow Event" on its way to Chicago. My immediate response was "I hope there's live music!"
If we end up being the only two staff members in today we are totally going to hang out and watch streaming Doctor Who bootlegs in the conference room.
I feel like I should get -- not more money, but somehow a little stamp next to my name on days like today, when half the staff totally fucked off because there's two inches of snow on the ground and a light dusting of it in the air. If I made it here from the Sheridan El stop, which is an open platform three stories off the ground with no windbreaks, you bastards with cars can damn well make the effort. And if you won't, I should get a gold star next to my name when I clock in.
And a cookie.
BossBoss is in today though, good man himself. Yesterday we were LOLing just before I left work, because my mother emailed me that there was a "Snow Event" on its way to Chicago. My immediate response was "I hope there's live music!"
If we end up being the only two staff members in today we are totally going to hang out and watch streaming Doctor Who bootlegs in the conference room.
At least one awesome change
Feb. 9th, 2010 03:48 pmyviI have a job April 1 - June 30 as a research assistant, finishing up my Master's project and writing a manuscript from it.
It even pays enough to live from (well, you know, same standards as before and everything).
It even pays enough to live from (well, you know, same standards as before and everything).
Real Men
Feb. 9th, 2010 09:30 amjimhinesCatherynne Valente recently posted two essays about gender issues, both of which are worth reading.1
“If you watch these ads, and mainstream sitcoms, you see this place. This place where men and women can barely stand each other long enough to have mutually unfulfilling sex and procreate. Where women are the sole source of everything irritating and wrong in a man’s life, plus she’s never hot enough, plus you have to, like, interact with her sometimes.”
It’s gotten me thinking about masculinity and what it means to “Be a man” in this culture. The way we’re taught to act with other men and with women, the roles and responsibilities we’re supposed to take on, the things we are and aren’t supposed to worry about….
What a bunch of insane, contradictory crap. Here are just a few of the “rules” I’ve come up with.
- Avoid traditionally feminine activity. Dishes, laundry, diapers, vacuuming — these activities generate massive quantities of femions that cling to your skin and cause penis cancer.
- Hanging out with women is a chore. Women only want to shop and go to chick flicks. Men should hang out with other men, being manly together. (But in a totally heterosexual way.)
- Holding a woman’s purse makes you temporarily gay.
- Much like the light of a red sun robs Superman of his power, pastels drain a man’s masculinity. Beware the power of baby blue kryptonite.
- Sex is a competition. (Seriously, WTF people???)
- Homosexuality is a fate worse than death. Lesbians are hot. This is not a contradiction.
- Your daughter, being a girl, will be completely incapable of taking care of herself. Meet any potential boyfriends at the door while carrying a shotgun.
- Your place in Heaven is determined by the size of your penis and the amount of hair on your scalp.
I was planning to transition into my own thoughts about being a man. What I think a real man should be. A healthier, better list. But it didn’t work. Say you go with “A real man takes care of his family.” Why does this have anything to do with gender? “A real man protects those who need his help.” And a real woman doesn’t? “A real man respects women.” No, a decent human being respects women. And men.
But I did come up with one guideline. Because a real man can speak out against sexism and homophobia, and be heard in a way that women speaking those same words might not be. Because women complaining about sexism are dismissed as ball-busting feminazis with no sense of humor.
I’ve watched it happen again and again. A woman writes or speaks about a topic and gets ignored. I or another man speak out about the same thing, and there’s an outpouring of support and agreement. I still get blown off, but not as often or in the same way as I see happening to women.
Being a man means I’m given certain advantages, including the power to speak out and be listened to. Being a good man means using that voice to fight this hateful sexist crap.
—
- Actually, everything Cat writes is worth reading. Why aren’t you following her blog already? ↩
Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.
Annoying things
Feb. 9th, 2010 07:04 amzarhooieThe Plan: Denny's has their free Grand Slam breakfast thing today from 6am to... some time. Carrie and I planned on going early before class because we're too busy after class. We agreed to get up at 6:15, be heading out to Denny's by 6:30. This is not really that strange. We'd be back by 8:30 so Carrie could go to class.
What Happened: I got up at 6:15, got dressed and called Carrie to make sure she knew I was coming over. She isn't awake yet and says she doesn't want to go. OK, whatever.
Because Carrie doesn't want to go and isn't going to get up (as agreed on), I can't go. Dude, I am NOT sitting in a strange place filled with strangers by myself. That's a panic attack waiting to happen. About 3/4 the fun of stuff like this is doing it with friends.
So it's 7am and the day already sucks. AWESOME.
Going back to bed. Wake me when summer's here.
-Kat
What Happened: I got up at 6:15, got dressed and called Carrie to make sure she knew I was coming over. She isn't awake yet and says she doesn't want to go. OK, whatever.
Because Carrie doesn't want to go and isn't going to get up (as agreed on), I can't go. Dude, I am NOT sitting in a strange place filled with strangers by myself. That's a panic attack waiting to happen. About 3/4 the fun of stuff like this is doing it with friends.
So it's 7am and the day already sucks. AWESOME.
Going back to bed. Wake me when summer's here.
-Kat
(no subject)
Feb. 9th, 2010 11:19 pmlindraa;lodfj this is terrible!!!!
my emergency bra is broken as fuck and I don't know how to fix it and now the wires are coming out of one of the only bras I can actually wear!!!
ahhhhh
i swear I will calm down when I DO NOT HAVE UNDERWIRE POKING ME IN THE MOUTH
srsly the brafail was epic.
EPIC.
dogsdgljsdgj;
my emergency bra is broken as fuck and I don't know how to fix it and now the wires are coming out of one of the only bras I can actually wear!!!
ahhhhh
i swear I will calm down when I DO NOT HAVE UNDERWIRE POKING ME IN THE MOUTH
srsly the brafail was epic.
EPIC.
dogsdgljsdgj;
Scooter vaguely remember a
Feb. 9th, 2010 03:00 amicanhascheezburger_feed
Scooter vaguely remember a voice saying, “we can rebuild him, we have the technology…if not the budget…”
Picture by: Iwan Nieuwland Caption by: oneforsorrow13 via Advanced Lol Builder
[fic] Hearing the Ocean
Feb. 8th, 2010 11:56 pmadevyish posting in ![[community profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
princeoftennisTitle: Hearing the Ocean
Author:adevyish
Characters: Yanagi, Inui, other Rikkai characters
Summary: Yanagi Renji's life has two parts: Sadaharu, and after Sadaharu.
Notes, Warnings, and General Age Category: PG, gen, 9200 words. Extra warning for math geekery. Beta'd by![[livejournal.com profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xelyssa and thursday; concrit would be great.
“Whatever,” Inui said, smiling. “Now that we’re doubles partners forever, you have to call me ‘Sadaharu’, o.k.?”
Author:
adevyishCharacters: Yanagi, Inui, other Rikkai characters
Summary: Yanagi Renji's life has two parts: Sadaharu, and after Sadaharu.
Notes, Warnings, and General Age Category: PG, gen, 9200 words. Extra warning for math geekery. Beta'd by
xelyssa and thursday; concrit would be great.“Whatever,” Inui said, smiling. “Now that we’re doubles partners forever, you have to call me ‘Sadaharu’, o.k.?”
*whimper*
Feb. 9th, 2010 12:14 amysobelI am trying to remember that when I started knitting -- whenever that was; I can't even remember -- I was slow and clumsy and dropped stitches and couldn't get things to work right. That I got better because of practice, not because of magic innate knitting ability.
It's really fucking hard, though.
I just. I. I'm used to being able to just /knit/, and maybe some of that is blurred memory, remembering the easy bits without remembering the problems, but not all of it. I used to be able to do stuff. And with the loom, I can't. It's a constant struggle, and stitches take an average of three tries, and it takes me 45-60 minutes to do one round (and this is a sock, 60 stitches, not a huge thing).
Doesn't help that I can't read stitches, so I can't just knit knits and purl purls, I have to count from the beginning of the round. And knitting hurts a bit, even with the loom, even with not having to bring my hands together.
*makes impatient noises of frustration*
(I want a body that works, dammit)
It's really fucking hard, though.
I just. I. I'm used to being able to just /knit/, and maybe some of that is blurred memory, remembering the easy bits without remembering the problems, but not all of it. I used to be able to do stuff. And with the loom, I can't. It's a constant struggle, and stitches take an average of three tries, and it takes me 45-60 minutes to do one round (and this is a sock, 60 stitches, not a huge thing).
Doesn't help that I can't read stitches, so I can't just knit knits and purl purls, I have to count from the beginning of the round. And knitting hurts a bit, even with the loom, even with not having to bring my hands together.
*makes impatient noises of frustration*
(I want a body that works, dammit)